The undocumented couriers we interviewed were aged between 20 and 40, and possessed little or no English. ‘A choice between eating or getting documents’ The documented couriers regard this activity as harming their prospects of securing decent pay and working hours. Some couriers also described receiving abuse from other riders on social media – for example, in response to their posts looking for accounts to rent. I can take some money home but at very high costs: long hours on the bike, aching knees and joints, back problems from carrying the thermal bag – dealing with the account broker … They are such a pain, and you are always like: “Yes, sir.” Mario, who was single and lived with friends, linked his long hours and the physical nature of his work with sustaining various injuries as well as mental stress: The undocumented couriers we spoke to typically said they struggled to make enough money to pay off their debts and support their families, despite often working seven days a week. I've worked in precarious jobs for more than 10 years – here's what unions should do to support migrant workers Often desperate to secure waged work but with no options for lawful employment, they are willing to accept pay standards well below the UK’s national minimum wage and put up with stressful working conditions. But their experiences are important to understand. This is by no means a representative sample – undocumented riders represent a tiny fraction of the UK’s rapidly expanding food courier population. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges. The Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. This article is part of Conversation Insights We also interviewed 25 documented account holders, of whom three rented their accounts to undocumented couriers for anything from a few hours to weeks at a time. Despite past news reports highlighting this issue, it was not hard to find and talk to such people about their experiences.ĭuring 20, we got to know seven undocumented migrants who worked as food delivery riders by renting accounts from other riders. Our research into food couriers in one English city highlights the daily challenges facing undocumented migrant workers in this sector. They asked me if I needed a bike, gear and helmet for an extra fee. The way I started working was to search on Facebook for ads offering accounts – it’s pretty impressive how these people have all this set up. ![]() Mario, another undocumented migrant in his late 20s, explained that he would constantly browse different social media platforms to identify new courier accounts to rent, in case his existing ones suddenly became inoperable: ![]() Opportunities to rent someone else’s official account can arise through word of mouth, family members, social media and other community websites. In this square, I could point you to who is renting an account from other people because they cannot register using their own details. He said this was his first chance of regular paid work since arriving in the UK, adding: Luca spoke little English, rented a room with three other people, and earned some money by informally renting food delivery accounts from other couriers as a “substitute” rider. The 42-year-old husband and father of one was a recently arrived migrant but not qualified to work in the UK. ![]() ![]() This was where many food couriers waited for orders to “drop” into their mobile phones. Luca* had not been working long as an online food courier when we met him on a cold winter’s day in a square in the city centre.
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