Revisiting Engels’ ‘housing question’

Work and housing conditions of immigrant platform delivery riders in Barcelona

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12979337
AutoresPrachi G Metawala (0009-0000-7423-7201, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, autor de correspondencia), Kathrin Golda-Pongratz (0000-0003-1837-1531, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya), Clara Irazabal Zurita (0000-0003-2312-9360)
Año2021
Volumen14
Número2
Páginas243-257
Fecha de publicación2021-05-14
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHuman Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1942-7786 • E-ISSN: 2633-674X
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/19427786211010131
OpenAlexW3162727069
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas16

In his 1872 The housing question, Friedrich Engels addressed the housing problems faced by the proletarian migrant workers in major industrial centres. He asserted that they could only be solved by first resolving their harsh working conditions in the capitalist mode of mass production. Presently, with transnational migrant flows to urban centres and the mass acceptance of the digital platform economy, the housing question manifests itself, among other expressions, in the case of immigrants working in this digital contract-based market. While the platform economy provides immigrants with quick access into a host country’s labour market, the income insecurity and high risks associated with such work put them in a state of precariousness. Through the framework of Engels’ proposed action lines and analysis of observations and interviews with immigrant riders working for the food delivery platforms Glovo and Deliveroo, the paper highlights the negative impacts that this contemporary capitalist model of work, the municipal housing plan and the ongoing Covid-19 crisis have on the immigrant riders’ residential and working conditions in Barcelona, Spain, a city facing a severe rental housing shortage. Lastly, it suggests that, while the social market economy in Spain can be reformed to ameliorate the negative impacts of the platform economy on immigrant riders, bridging the gap between immigrant housing provision and employment inclusion would need to consider decent labour and housing as rights for residents, immigrants included, asserting the currency of Engels’ ideas

Affordable housing · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Immigration · Labour economics · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Renting · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Taxation and Compliance Studies