Publication: COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens
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Date
2020-04
ISSN
Published
2020-04
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The economic crisis induced by COVID‐19
could be long, deep, and pervasive when viewed through
amigration lens. Lockdowns, travel bans, and social
distancing have brought global economic activities to a near
standstill. Host countries face additional challenges in
many sectors, such as health and agriculture, that depend on
the availability of migrant workers. Migrants face the risk
of contagion and also the possible loss of employment,
wages, and health insurance coverage. This Migration and
Development Brief provides a prognosis of how these events
might affect global trends in international economic
migration and remittances in 2020 and 2021. Considering that
migrants tend to be concentrated in urban economic centers
(cities), and are vulnerable to infection by the
coronavirus, there is a need to include migrants in efforts
to fight thecoronavirus. Migrant remittances provide an
economic lifeline to poor households in many countries; a
reduction in remittance flows could increase poverty and
reduce households’ access to much‐needed health services.
The crisis could exacerbate xenophobic, discriminatory
treatment of migrants, which calls for greater vigilance
against such practices. This Brief is largely focused on
international migrants, but governments should not ignore
the plight of internal migrants. The magnitude of internal
migration is about two‐and‐a‐half times that of
international migration. Lockdowns, loss of employment, and
social distancing prompted a chaotic and painful process of
mass return for internal migrants in India and many
countries in Latin America. Thus, the COVID‐19 containment
measures might have contributed to spreading the epidemic.
Governments need to address the challenges facing internal
migrants by including them in health services and
cashtransfer and other social programs, and protecting them
from discrimination.
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Citation
“World Bank. 2020. COVID-19 Crisis Through a Migration Lens. Migration and Development Brief,no. 32;. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33634 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”