How has the precarity faced by migrants before Covid-19 been exacerbated in the Global North and South?

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the deep social inequalities faced by migrants around the globe, and the consequent economic recession has exacerbated their precarious situation. Migrants have been disproportionately exposed to the virus; treated as a flexible, cheap and disposable labour force, they have often been obliged to work in what have proved to be dangerous, sometimes fatal, conditions. In many cases, migrant workers have lost wages and jobs, and become even more exploited and abused by employers than before the pandemic. In addition, the media and political authorities have contributed to racism and social conflict in some areas, targeting specific national groups as scapegoats. Excluded from the basic rights of citizenship, migrants are discriminated against, and their social position has intensified both their risk of contagion and their economic vulnerability.

Organiser: Macarena Bonhomme, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths, and Postdoctoral Researcher at COES, Universidad Diego Portales.

Speakers:

Loren B Landau, Professor of Migration and Development, University of Oxford

Marcia Vera Espinoza, Lecturer in Human Geography, Queen Mary, University of London

Tanya Basok, Professor in Sociology and Anthropology, University of Windsor

*The Zoom link will be sent to attendees via e-mail before the event starts.