Special Focus: Migration, Asylum and Refuge during a Pandemic: Perspectives of Migrants, Researchers and Practitioners

Abstract

Volume V of the Refugee Review journal entitled ‘Migration, Asylum and Refuge during a Global Pandemic: Perspectives of Migrants, Researchers and Practitioners’ explores four thematic areas related to the impact of global pandemic. Our first area of interest is "the effects of border closures and establishment of strict health protocols on mobility and immobility." Górczyńska looks at severely curtailed access to asylum at the borders of Poland that took place well before the recent migration ‘crisis’ at the Polish-Belarusian border in 2021. She argues that pandemic restrictions were used by the Polish authorities to justify border closures and denying access to asylum well before the pandemic. Haden analyses the sub-Saharan migrant communities in Morocco to explore the consequences of the externalization and securitization of the European Union’s migration and border policies to its neighbour countries on migrants’ access to healthcare. Nabi looks specifically at the situation of refugees in Lesbos during the Covid-19 and argues that refugees’ lives became a biopolitical terrain of struggle between efforts for invisibility by the states and the EU and visibility by the refugees. Bendel, Fackler and Wiese summarise the series of three online events where experts debated challenges to human rights of refugees that arose due to Covid-19 taking the cases of Western Africa, Libya, Greek island of Lesbos and Bavaria (Germany). The second area of interest for us to explore is "the intersectionality and COVID-19." For instance, Bhat explores the impact of Covid-19 on transnational care practices of Nigerian migrant women in Southern Europe. The paper argues that cross-border lens allows us to see broader impact of pandemic restrictions on marginalised communities at origin and destination countries. Owigo analyses the challenges Somalian women-returnees from Saudi Arabia face and gendered vulnerabilities they experience during migration cycle. Hucke explores the case of lesbian migrant women in South Africa who feel themselves in a situation of ‘double quarantine’ due to dual restrictions caused by the pandemic and restricted access to support. The third theme of this volume is "the impact of pandemic on the welfare of migrant communities." Kinawi focuses on the protection gap experienced by the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, whose socio-economic rights are not protected. Tobin, Momani, and Al Yakoub compare the impact of coronavirus prevention measures on Syrian refugees in Jordan who reside in camps and those who live in urban areas. Taking example of Bengaluru (India), Mangur and Sengupta look at the help provided by the civil society organisations to migrant labourers stranded by the lockdown. Golesorkhi, Fortson and Riedmann explore the impact of pandemic-related immobility exacerbated by the restrictions paused by the racial justice protests on mental health and livelihoods of refugees in Portland (US). This section concludes with reflections of impacts of the pandemic on migrant communities through the lens of two artists. Moran’s poem ‘Old Age Home’ painfully traces the experiences of a family Elder, lamenting the way he or she was pushed out of the family in old age. Through his work ‘Selfish Healthy’, De Santo illustrates the silent environmental externality of the pandemic – the significant waste produced. Finally, we are interested in "what noticeable and tangible changes the pandemic brought to lives and work of practitioners and migrants in all aspects of their lives." Cabitza, Da Mosto, Lesi and Levi discuss not only the intersectional impact of Covid-19 on women refugees and asylum seekers residing in reception centre in Bologna. They also explore the impact of pandemic on social workers who face increased workload and stricter rules they needed to abound. Totah explores how migrant artists from Arab region experienced lockdowns and expressed resilience in the face of the pandemic through their artwork.