Migration and the Platform Economy

Much is said and written about the platform economy with many reports and studies highlighting that the majority of jobs will be freelance and plat­form-based within a few years. In this briefing we look at what the platform economy is, and underline that migrants make up a large percentage of the workers in this sector. Third-country nationals cannot get locked in a tech­nology-facilitated parallel economy which leads to unstable incomes, limited training and social isolation. The COVID-19 crisis has led to rising unemploy­ment and the recovery is likely to be characterised by increased labour market flexibility.

Significant demand remains in some sectors - for both low and high-skilled workers - and the platform economy can help in turning black jobs white and integrating migrants into host country labour forces. Work permits should be granted to migrants where jobs are available, while efforts should be made by all stakeholders to build trust in the platform economy through collaboration and the establishment of a Code of Conduct.