A COVID-19 State of Exception and the Bordering of Canada’s Immigration System: Assessing the Uneven Impacts on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Workers

Abstract

Responses to COVID-19 have been characterized by rapid border closures that have transformed the pandemic from a crisis of health to a crisis of mobility. While Canada was quick to implement border restrictions for non-citizens like refugees and asylum seekers, exemptions were made for some migrant groups like temporary workers. The pandemic marked a departure from who is considered worthy of admission to Canada. In fact, the border through restricted and securitized measures has filtered desirable versus non-desirable migrants, creating a hierarchy among migrants within Canada’s immigration system by categorizing groups into those deserving versus non-deserving of admission. Deeply embedded societal discrimination and structural inequalities means that COVID-19 has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of migrant groups more than others. COVID-19 has placed an uneven burden on refugees who face increased border restrictions, significant health and safety risks, and limitations in accessing human rights. This paper documents the challenges, social and economic impacts, and exacerbated vulnerabilities border closures have imposed on refugees, asylum seekers and temporary migrants. We assess the many challenges that COVID-19 has created at the intersection of border studies, security resilience and human rights. We employ the conceptual frame of security resilience to critically analyse the dynamics of how and why border strategies have restricted migrant groups in times of crisis and amounted to an unjustified weakening of refugee rights. Finally, we argue that social resilience, which is rooted in rights-based strategies, not only ensures that societies are prepared to meet external shocks and disruptions, but that policy responses mitigate societal discrimination and inequalities. We highlight these strategies as effective mechanisms for reconciling both public health concerns and the rights of migrants to create more cohesive societies in times of crisis.

Informality, Social Citizenship, and Wellbeing among Migrant Workers in Costa Rica in the Context of COVID-19

“…This necessitates further investigation regarding the bureaucratic and navigational barriers that are faced by migrant workers and that are perhaps more easily made invisible within national contexts that espouse a comprehensive welfare system [31]. These systemic barriers to social inclusion have also been documented in countries of the global north, including Canada, the United States, and Europe [32][33][34].…”

The Intersections of COVID-19 Global Health Governance and Population Health Priorities: Equity-Related Lessons Learned From Canada and Selected G20 Countries

“…The most common COVID-19 public health measures discussed in the papers included in the scoping review [ 13 ] were social and fiscal measures [ 17 , 21 , 25 – 27 , 29 , 30 ] to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) that include stay-at-home instructions, physical distancing [ 17 – 21 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 28 ], and COVID-19 testing [ 19 , 24 – 26 ]. Control measures such as lockdowns [ 20 , 22 , 23 , 25 – 27 ] and pharmaceutical interventions (e.g., vaccines) [ 20 , 25 , 29 ] were also addressed.…”

Pathways to food insecurity: Migration, hukou and COVID‐19 in Nanjing, China

“…In their pandemic impact typology, Katikireddi et al (2021) propose that these inequalities produced impact ‘pathways’ which include initial exposure to the coronavirus, vulnerability to infection/disease, its social and economic consequences, effectiveness of pandemic control measures, and the adverse consequences of control measures. Along all these pathways, migrants working in other countries or away from home in their own countries have proven to be the most vulnerable and negatively affected (Abu Alrob & Shields, 2022; Freier & Vera Espinoza, 2021; Jesline et al, 2021; Mengesha et al, 2022; Mukumbang et al, 2020; Quandt et al, 2021; Ramachandran et al, 2022).…”