Outpaced by platforms: how employment services for immigrants struggle to keep pace

Immigrants are overrepresented in Canada’s platform economy, yet platform work is not characterized as legitimate and sustainable within employment services shaped by New Public Management (NPM) and austerity policies. This focused ethnography interrogates limitations of NPM and uses a sociotechnical approach to analyse key informant interviews. Three themes are addressed: (1) Out of scope: the limits of current policy, (2) Systemic lags and the unknowns of platform work and (3) Reproducing racial and cultural inequalities in platform work. Findings show that narrow performance metrics, competitive funding and depoliticized environments marginalize platform workers, constrain innovation and suppress culturally responsive advocacy.