International politics of migration in times of ‘crisis’ and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

A much-anticipated end of the COVID-19 pandemic is on the horizon. It is important to reflect on the ways in which the pandemic has impacted the international politics of migration and especially on the migration-security nexus, which is still little understood but affecting policies and population movements with future implications. How the pandemic has shaped tradeoffs between securitization of migration, health, and economic concerns in governing migration? What are the new trends emerging from the pandemic on the migration-security nexus? And how can we study these in the coming years? This Research Note features insights from scholars associated with the British International Studies Association’s working group on the ‘International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora’. They argue that the pandemic has exacerbated tendencies for migration control beyond reinforcing nation-state borders, namely through foregrounding ‘riskification’ of migration discourses and practices, adding to an earlier existing securitization of migration considered as a ‘threat’. Digital controls at borders and beyond were ramped up, as were racial tropes and discrimination against migrants and mobile persons more generally. These trends deepen the restrictions on liberal freedoms during a period of global democratic backsliding, but also trigger a counter-movement where the visibility of migrants as ‘key workers’ and their deservingness in host societies has been enhanced, and diasporas became more connected to their countries of origin. This Research Note finds that enhanced controls, on the one side, and openings for visibility of migrants and transnational connectivity of diasporas, on the other, are worthy to study in the future as political trends per se. Yet, it would be also interesting to study them as interconnected in a dual movement of simultaneous restriction and inclusion, and in an interdependent world where the power of nation-states has been reasserted due to the pandemic, but migrant transnationalism has remained largely intact.

Guest editorial: State policies and regulations towards migrant work in times of, and beyond, the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The pandemic confirmed the effective role that States maintain in facilitating and restraining migrant labour across national boundaries (see also Koinova et al, 2023) to meet employers' "needs" which in general are considered to support the economic interests of the country at large. Yet, the pandemic also exposed the State's delays and inactivity in protecting migrant workers, especially in the lower segments of the labour market.…”

“…In response to government support schemes that failed to include particular groups of migrant workers, local governance and community initiatives stepped in to support the urgent needs of migrants, as they did in Japan for instance (see Milly, 2023). NGOs and civil society organizations also played an important role to fight for better State protection of migrants, through campaigns, lobby or judicial proceedings (Koinova et al, 2023). If not, migrants were left to fend for themselves, by switching jobs or taking up different work tasks, to avoid the detrimental effects of job loss, as Ndomo et al (2023) illustrates through biographical interviews with highly educated African migrants in Finland.…”

“…The management of the "emergency" reaffirmed the centrality of the State after decades of de-regularization and privatization trends in various policy domains (Koinova et al, 2023). During the crisis, it was the State which had ultimate responsibility to govern and secure availability of migrant labour in the public and private sectors of the labour market.…”

Possibilities of Using Artificial Intelligence in the Process of International Migration Management

“…Artificial intelligence -a set of "smart programs" offers new ways of solving problems of the post-pandemic period, making technological decisions, managing migration processes using modern innovative achievements, improving border services, etc. [9]. At the current stage of artificial intelligence development, one of the tangible results for the general public is the knowledge generated by it, which is widely used in the financial, banking, business, agricultural, law, education, health sectors, e-government process, etc.…”