The increasing reliance on immigrant labour in the digital economy is reshaping urban labour markets, with platform-based gig work—such as food delivery—at the forefront of this transformation. While much research has focused on the precarious conditions of delivery riders, less attention has been paid to the relationship between digital migrant labour, local labour markets, and the forms of resistance and organising that emerge in this context. This study addresses that gap by examining how migrant food delivery workers in Mestre and Marghera—urban areas within the city of Venice—navigate their work and participate in both formal and informal strategies of resistance and mutual support.

Based on ethnographic research, in-depth interviews, and participant observation, the study analyses how migrant riders confront intersecting pressures: precarious legal status, fragmented employment relations, and the limitations of traditional labour institutions. It focuses on two organising efforts: the mobilising attempts of established trade unions in Mestre and the initiatives of an independent association of riders. These cases reveal the structural constraints posed by restrictive migration regimes and the corporatist inertia of mainstream unions in adapting to platform labour.

Digital labour is becoming a key site of contestation over the future of work, marked not only by formal collective mobilisations but also by informal and sometimes individual acts of resistance. These range from everyday refusals and tactical disengagements to the creation of autonomous networks of solidarity. Contrary to the notion of platform labour as inherently individualising, this study highlights the enduring significance of mutualism, collective agency, and workers' knowledge in shaping labour struggles. It also shows how digital labour is generating an unexpected resurgence of conflict, though often in fragmented or less visible forms.

Ultimately, the study argues that the barriers to organising food delivery workers lie not only in their precarious conditions, but also in the structural incapacity of labour institutions to confront the new realities of racialised digital labour. By centring migrant workers' agency and experience, this research sheds light on both the challenges and the transformative potential of organising in the digital labour economy.