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Precarity and Prejudice: Media Narratives about Migrant Platform Workers in Poland

Data publikacji: 18.12.2025

Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, 2025 (LI), Nr 4 (198), s. 53-77

https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.25.026.22991

Autorzy

Klaudia Khan
Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2066-4332 Orcid
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Tytuły

Precarity and Prejudice: Media Narratives about Migrant Platform Workers in Poland

Abstrakt

Although platform work is becoming increasingly important, and increasingly present in the public discourse, its representation in the media remains insufficiently researched. In Poland, the simultaneous changes brought about by platformisation and the growing diversification of society due to immigration are evident, with many migrants choosing platform work for various reasons. Media functions as a site where competing meanings of platformisation and migration are articulated, contested, and potentially normalised. This research paper examines how migrant platform workers are represented in Polish online media between 2022 and 2024, a period marked by significant changes in migration flows and platform labour regulation. Drawing on a corpus of 80 news articles published across outlets of diverse political orientations, the study applies a qualitative framing analysis informed by social constructionism and media theory. The analysis identifies three dominant frames – neoliberal, portraying migrants as flexible entrepreneurs and economic assets; solidarity, emphasising precarity, exploitation, and empathy; and securitisation, constructing migrants as sources of risk or threat. The findings highlight how narratives about platforms and migration are fragmented and often contradictory, oscillating between inclusion, protection, and exclusion. The study contributes to debates on platformisation and migration by showing how Polish media discourses not only reflect but also participate in the production of “common sense” understandings of digital labour, mobility, and worker rights.

Bibliografia

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Odyskać kontrolę. Zapewnić bezpieczeństwo. Kompleksowa i odpowiedzialna strategia migracyjna Polski na lata 2025–2030. Załącznik do uchwały nr 120 z dnia 15 października 2024.

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Informacje

Informacje: Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, 2025 (LI), Nr 4 (198), s. 53-77

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Autorzy

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2066-4332

Klaudia Khan
Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2066-4332 Orcid
Kontakt z autorem
Wszystkie publikacje autora →

Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Publikacja: 18.12.2025

Status artykułu: Otwarte __T_UNLOCK

Licencja: CC BY 4.0  ikona licencji

Finansowanie artykułu:

This research is funded in whole by the National Science Centre, Poland, project registration number: 2023/50/O/HS6/00090 (Preludium Bis).

Udział procentowy autorów:

Klaudia Khan (Autor) - 100%

Informacje o autorze:

Klaudia Khan is a PhD student in Sociology at the Graduate School for Social Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, where she conducts research within the NCN project “Migrants’ platform work in Poland: labour market integration or segregation?” supervised by Dr. hab. Katarzyna Andrejuk. Her research interests include migration and labour markets, platform economies, gender and work, as well as the sociology of religion and identity. She holds an MSc in Education and Sustainability from the University of Gothenburg (2020) and a BA in Sociology with First Class Honours from Middlesex University, London (2009).

Korekty artykułu:

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Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Precarity and Prejudice: Media Narratives about Migrant Platform Workers in Poland

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