Same Job, Different Conditions: Job Quality Gaps between Foreign-Born and Native-Born Platform Couriers in Gothenburg

Sammanfattning

During the last decade, app-based delivery platforms have become part of everyday city life in Sweden. At the same time, there are still clear differences between Swedish-born and foreign-born workers when it comes to getting stable and secure jobs even though Sweden is known for its strong labour market institutions. This thesis looks at delivery couriers in Gothenburg and focuses on how social networks influence the quality of their work. Here, job quality mainly refers to how stable income and working hours feel and how much control workers think they have over their daily routines. The study is based on an online survey with 23 couriers. The analysis uses ideas from Mixed Embeddedness and Segmented Labour Market Theory together with perspectives from economic geography, especially the idea of proximity. The results show that Swedish-born and foreign-born couriers enter and organise platform work in different ways. Many foreign-born workers start through friends, people from the same country or online rider communities. They also more often work through intermediated arrangements. Swedish-born couriers describe the job as something they manage more independently. The findings show that social networks help workers get into the job and offer useful support but they can also limit workers in the long run. Those who rely heavily on close co-ethnic networks often face more idle time and weaker predictability in their earnings and schedules. More hours on the app do not automatically translate into greater stability. Another important result is that foreign-born couriers seem more distant from formal institutions. Many are unsure where to seek help and rarely use formal support channels, while Swedish-born workers more often feel confident doing so. This shows why informal networks become so important even in a country with strong labour market institutions. The study suggests that platform delivery work in Gothenburg belongs to the secondary labour market but not all couriers experience it in the same way. Geography matters too as job quality is shaped not only by app design and contracts but also by where workers move in the city, who they meet and how close they are to useful information and support.