Precarity by Design: A Study of Tech Sector Lobbying on Issues Related to Migrant Labor

• In Event: Poster Session 2

Abstract

Researchers find that migrant workers in the tech industry experience exploitation as a result of algorithmic determinism and subcontracting. While there is evidence that tech companies advocate for specific labor structures, researchers have yet to explore how tech companies influence the regulations that lead to worker precarity. I address this issue using an Abolitionist Feminist framework to examine tech companies lobbying around migrant labor. I use process tracing to gather data from the U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure and congressional testimonies to track tech sector lobbying related to immigration and subcontracting employment structures. I find that tech companies play a role in shaping their labor pool in two ways. First, through immigration lobbying, where companies simultaneously push for decreased barriers for specialty visa holders and an increase in border security and surveillance. Second, tech companies lobby to ensure that gig workers remain subcontractors who lack employee benefits and bargaining rights. My findings demonstrate that tech companies use complex strategies to reconstruct who can and cannot work and what labor protections are available. These activities grow the tech labor pool but also increase worker precarity. This study has important implications for reducing migrant labor exploitation and the future of labor in tech.

Author

• Dylan O'Donoghue, Rutgers University - Camden