The vulnerability to COVID-19 of migrants in large urban areas: structural exacerbators and community-level mitigators

Abstract

Background Despite research on large urban areas in the context of COVID-19, evidence on how these settings impact migrants is still limited. Objective To explore exacerbating and mitigating factors of large urban areas on migrants’ vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2022, focused on migrants (foreign-born individuals who have not been naturalized in the host country, regardless of legal immigration status) in urban areas with a population >500 000. After screening 880 studies, 29 studies were included and categorized within the following thematic framework: (i) pre-existing inequities, (ii) governance strategies, (iii) urban design and (iv) engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs). Results Exacerbating factors include pre-existing inequities (e.g. unemployment, financial instability and barriers to healthcare access), exclusionary government responses (e.g. ineligibility for relief funds or unemployment benefits) and residential segregation. Mitigating community-level factors include the engagement of CSOs to fill institutional and governmental gaps through service provision and use of technology. Conclusions We recommend increased attention to pre-existing structural inequities faced by migrants, more inclusive governance strategies and partnerships between government and CSOs to improve the design and delivery of services to migrants in large urban areas. More research is needed on how urban design can be utilized to mitigate COVID-19 impacts on migrant communities. The factors identified in this systematic review should be considered as part of migrant-inclusive emergency preparedness strategies to address the disproportionate impact of health crises on migrant communities.

The social evolution of COVID-19: pandemics as total social facts

“…All of this reveals why the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on low-income individuals and precarious workers (Santa-Ramírez et al, 2022 ), radicalized communities (Irizar et al, 2023 ), the elderly (Lithander et al, 2020 ), the disabled (Sohn et al, 2022 ), those living in rural, isolated areas or areas with poor Internet connection (Ferri et al, 2020 ), immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and the displaced persons (Tazreiter and Metcalfe, 2021 ; Hitch et al, 2023 ), freelancers, informal economy workers (International Labour Organization, 2020 ), women (Wu and Qian, 2022 ) and children (Imran et al, 2020 ), the diagnosed mentally ill (Catalán et al, 2023 ), or the homeless (Abrams and Szefler, 2020 ; Sapey and Di Iorio, 2023 ), as well as other groups.…”