At your service: the mobilities, rhythms and everyday lives of migrant labour in the gig economy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This introduction presents a framework for the contributions to the special issue At Your Service: The Mobilities, Rhythms and Everyday Lives of Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy. The article begins by providing an overview of the current literature on the gig economy and the growing attention towards its relationship to processes of migration. The introduction continues by outlining and discussing three themes that in different ways shape the contributions in the issue. First, we situate the issue in relation to contemporary and historical migration processes and regimes of mobility. Second, we discuss how the articles in this issue explore the rhythms of gig work in relation to the spatio-temporalities of migration regimes and cities increasingly built on a logic of fulfilment. Finally, we draw attention to the infrastructural role of migrant gig workers in midst of the contemporary social reproductive crisis. This perspective opens new avenues for future research with questions of social reproductive justice at its core.