Precarious Migrants in a Sharing Economy| On-Demand Migrants: Entrepreneurialism, Platformization, and Migration in Brazil

Authors

  • Sofia Cavalcanti Zanforlin Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
  • Rafael Grohmann Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos University), Brazil

Keywords:

migration, platformization, entrepreneurialism, on-demand migrants

Abstract

This article is based on training programs for migrant entrepreneurs and aims to analyze how the platformization of labor and the entrepreneurial discourse—as aspects of communication—shape the relationship of migrants living in São Paulo with Migraflix NGO and its partners, such as Facebook and Uber, exponents of the gig economy. We conducted interviews with 10 migrants and refugees in São Paulo over two years. The interviewees' discourses reveal that the entrepreneurial rhetoric hides situations of job insecurity, lack of transparency in hiring and paying for services, and dependence on NGOs for participation in events and markets. Migrants depend on the NGO to be able to work and cannot earn a minimum income to survive; they must also work as drivers for companies like Uber—in line with studies on migrant labor in the gig economy. Thus, in the context of platform migration, these people are turned into on-demand migrants.

Author Biographies

Sofia Cavalcanti Zanforlin, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil

Sofia Zanforlin, Assistant Professor, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil. She holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Co-chair of Diaspora and Media Working Group at the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Principal investigator for the research group Migration, Mobility and Contemporary Population Management (Migra-UFPE). Her research interests include Intercultural communication, belonging, citizenship and the uses and appropriations of Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs. Email: sofia.zanforlin@ufpe.br

Rafael Grohmann, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos University), Brazil

Assistant Professor in Communication at the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos University), Brazil. He holds a PhD in Communication from the University of São Paulo. Coordinator of DigiLabour Research Lab and the editor of DigiLabour newsletter. Principal Investigator for the Fairwork project in Brazil. His research interests include digital labor, platform cooperativism, datafication, workers’ organization, communication and work. Email: rafaelgrohmann@unisinos.br

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Published

2022-11-21

Issue

Vol. 16 (2022)

Section

Special Sections

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