Laura Lam is a research assistant at CERC Migration and Integration and a PhD student at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto where she currently holds a SSHRC J.A. Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Her research interest is at the nexus of migration, precarious employment and gender, with a focus on the use of app-based digital labour platforms. She completed her Master of Arts in Immigration and Settlement Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University and obtained her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia with a specialization in marketing and sustainability.
She has worked as a research assistant at Toronto Metropolitan University on studying non-standard and precarious work. In addition, she has conducted and published research on venture capital funding’s impact on societal well being and collaborated with researchers on a qualitative ethnographic project on understanding employment trajectories of migrant women entrepreneurs.
Laura has previously worked in a marketing capacity with various startups and technology accelerators, and currently co-owns an employment-based social enterprise, The Good Chocolatier. She also serves as a volunteer business coach with the Women Business Accelerator at ACCESS Community Capital in Toronto and active in advocacy work with anti-human trafficking initiatives in Canada.
Recent Publications
Lam, L. & Triandafyllidou, A. (2021). An unlikely stepping stone? Exploring how platform work shapes newcomer migrant integration (external link) . Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 5(1), 11–29.
Triandafyllidou, A., & Lam, L. (2021, March 2). British Uber driver win is promising, but gig workers still need basic rights (external link, opens in new window) . The Conversation.
Lam, L. (2020). Have Platforms Become Part of the Immigration Experience? (opens in new window) Platform Labor.
Lam, L., & Seidel, M. D. L. (2020). Hypergrowth Exit Mindset: Destroying Societal Wellbeing through Venture Capital Biased Social Construction of Value (external link) . Journal of Management Inquiry, 29(4), 471-474.
Lam, L., & Seidel, M. D. L. (2020). (PDF file) COVID-19 is an opportunity to challenge problematic VC culture (external link) . LSE Business Review.