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Uneven Development in the Platform Economy: Stratified Immigration Policies and Uneven Access to Transnational Social Protections in North America

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
Uneven Development in the Platform Economy: Stratified Immigration Policies and Uneven Access to Transnational Social Protections in North America
Abstract
How do digital platforms, such as Uber, Amazon, or DoorDash, reterritorialize social protections for immigrant workers at urban, national, and transnational scales? In this paper I show how they function as tools of economic integration, situating interplays between states, markets to generate new territorial configurations and exclusions in the digital economy. By analyzing the role of immigrant workers in the platform economy, I aim to show how platform economies both enable and constrain transnational mobility, deepening global inequalities through the uneven impact of flexible labour mediated by digital infrastructures. I focus specifically on software engineers and gig workers, who perform what Vallas and Schor (2020) identify as “geographically tethered work”. These two migrant groups allow me to observe how platformization has reterritorialized labour relations. Providing an analysis of different immigrant workers in the North American platform economy, I aim to show the ways in which immigration status makes these labour relations more precarious, increasing the reliance on transnational infrastructures of care.
Publication
Digital Geography and Society
Date
2026
Pages
31 pages
Journal Abbr
Digital Geography and Society
Accessed
2/27/26, 4:07 PM
ISSN
2666-3783
Citation
Cervantes-Macías, M. E. (2026). Uneven Development in the Platform Economy: Stratified Immigration Policies and Uneven Access to Transnational Social Protections in North America. Digital Geography and Society, 31 pages. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2026.100164