MIGRATION POLICY PRACTICE Introduction – Migration Policy in the Age of Immobility Solon Ardittis and Frank Laczko1
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10th Anniversary ISSUE EDITORIAL BOARD Joint Managing Editors: • Solon Ardittis (Eurasylum) • Frank Laczko (International MIGRATION Organization for Migration – IOM) Editorial Adviser: • Joanne van Selm (Eurasylum) Editorial Coordinator: POLICY • Valerie Hagger (International Organization for Migration – IOM) Editorial Assistant: • Anna Lyn Constantino PRACTICE (International Organization for A Bimonthly Journal for and by Policymakers Worldwide Migration – IOM) ISSN 2223-5248 Vol. X, Number 2, April–June 2020 Editorial Committee: • Aderanti Adepoju (Human Resources Development Centre, Lagos, Nigeria) • Peter Bosch (European Commission, Brussels) • Howard Duncan (Metropolis, Ottawa, Canada) • Neli Esipova (Gallup World Poll, New York) • Araceli Azuara Ferreiro (Organization of American States – OAS, Washington, D.C.) Distribution of IEC material in the Lao Thousands of Kenyans, Somalis and Ethiopians are forced to take long arduous journeys in search of • Marta Foresti (Overseas People's Democratic Development Institute – ODI, survival,Republic. as © the IOM Horn 2020 of Africa experiences the worst drought in 60 years. © IOM 2011/Lovorka IKOVAC London) • Andrew Geddes (Migration Policy COVID-19: A NEW CHALLENGE FOR MIGRATION POLICY Centre – MPC, Florence) • Lukas Gehrke (International Centre Introduction – Migration policy Risks and Challenges to Migrants, for Migration Policy Development – in the age of immobility .......................2 Asylum seekers and Refugees living ICMPD, Vienna) Solon Ardittis and Frank Laczko under COVID-19 in Ciudad Juárez, • Shahidul Haque (Ministry of Mexico ................................................. 48 Covid-19: Demography, economics, Blanca Navarrete, Gabriella Sanchez Foreign Affairs, Government of the migration and the way forward ............8 People’s Republic of Bangladesh) F. Landis MacKellar Addressing the mobility dimension • Bela Hovy (UN Department of of COVID-19: How data innovation Economic and Social Affairs, The challenge of real-time analysis: can help ............................................... 54 New York) making sense of the migration and Marzia Rango, Emma Borgnäs • Michelle Leighton (International mobility implications of COVID-19 .....15 Marie McAuliffe, Céline Bauloz, Adrian Kitimbo Labour Office – ILO, Geneva) Travel restrictions, points of • William McClure (Australian entry, and mobility data: Impact COVID-19 and inequalities: in COVID-19 data models and Department of Home Affairs) Protecting the human rights of • Pietro Mona (Swiss Agency for needed solutions for proximity, migrants in a time of pandemic..........21 location and mobility data .................60 Development and Cooperation, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, Letizia Palumbo Eduardo Zambrano, Gretchen Bueermann, Federal Department of Foreign Duncan Sullivan Affairs, Berne) COVID-19 and migration • Dilip Ratha (World Bank, governance: A holistic perspective .....27 COVID-19 and migration from West Andrea Milan, Reshma Cunnoosamy Washington, D.C.) Africa to Europe: What can be • Hilmar Schneider (Institute for the learned from previous “crises”? .........65 Migrant and displaced children Irene Schöfberger, Kenza Aggad Study of Labor – IZA, Bonn) in the age of COVID-19: How the • Nand Kishore Singh (Member of pandemic is impacting them Interview with Diego Iturralde, the Indian Parliament, New Delhi) and what can we do to help ...............32 Chief Director: Demography at • Stephanos Stavros (Council of Danzhen You, Naomi Lindt, Rose Allen, Statistics South Africa and Co-chair Claus Hansen, Jan Beise, Saskia Blume Europe, Strasbourg) of the United Nations Expert • Maia Welbourne (Citizenship and A pandemic-fueled approach to Group on Migration Statistics .............70 Immigration Canada – CIC, Ottawa) immigration in the United States • Klaus F. Zimmermann (Global and the neighbouring region ..............40 Labour Organization – GLO) Joanne van Selm This publication has been issued without Published jointly by the formal editing by IOM. International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Eurasylum Ltd. PUB2020/040/L Vol. X, Number 2, April–June 2020 2 MIGRATION POLICY PRACTICE Introduction – Migration policy in the age of immobility Solon Ardittis and Frank Laczko1 he COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a Furthermore, since the outbreak of the pandemic, global health crisis. However, as we explain in resettlement procedures have been suspended by detail in this special issue, it is also likely to have the UN, thus cutting off a “vital lifeline for particularly T 3 enormous implications for migrants and migration vulnerable refugees”, and leaving millions of refugees policy worldwide. For many years researchers talked with an uncertain path ahead. In many countries, about the “Age of Migration”, an era when more and border closures have left migrants stranded, placing more people were on the move. Suddenly within children and their families at risk of further harm and the space of less than two months movements potentially separating families for longer stretches. across most borders have almost ceased completely As of 22 April, of the 167 countries that have fully or – and policymakers are faced with the challenge of partially closed their borders to contain the spread of managing migration during a period of immobility. the virus, some 57 States have made no exception for According to IOM, as of 23 April 2020, a total of 215 access to asylum procedures.4 countries, territories and areas had implemented a total of 52,262 restrictive measures. As a result about A report issued recently by the International Rescue 93 per cent of the world population lives in countries Committee (IRC)5 has stressed that financial and with restricted travel according to the Pew Research humanitarian aid was needed to help slow the global Center. How will the pandemic and these restrictions spread of the virus and avoid a major outbreak on movements affect global migration? It is too early in “fragile countries”. The report, which is based to say precisely but policymakers are likely to face on models and data from WHO and the Imperial several related policy challenges. College London, estimated there could be between 500 million and 1 billion infections globally and First, there are concerns that migrants, refugees and more than 3 million deaths across dozens of conflict- displaced populations will be especially exposed to affected and unstable countries. risk. On the humanitarian front, as a recent Interim Guidance issued by the World Health Organization Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many Council of (WHO) has highlighted,2 while most refugees Europe member States have set out to suspend forced and migrants live in individual and communal returns of persons no longer authorized to stay on accommodations in urban areas, and therefore face their territories, including so-called Dublin returns. similar health threats from COVID-19 as their host On 26 March 2020, The CoE’s Commissioner for populations, their degree of vulnerability may be a Human Rights also called on Member States to review lot higher due to the conditions of their migratory the situation of rejected asylum seekers and irregular journeys, limited employment opportunities, migrants in immigration detention, and to release overcrowded and poor living and working conditions them to the maximum extent possible. with inadequate access to food, water, sanitation and other basic services. 3 “COVID-19: Agencies Temporarily Suspend Refugee Resettlement Travel”, UN News, 17 March 2020. Available at https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059602, accessed 23 April 2020. 1 Solon Ardittis is Managing Director of Eurasylum Ltd. and 4 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘Beware Frank Laczko is Director of the Global Migration Data Analysis Long-Term Damage to Human Rights and Refugee Rights Centre (GMDAC) at the International Organization for From the Coronavirus Pandemic’, Press release, 22 April 2020. Migration Migration (IOM) in Berlin. They are the co-editors of Available at www.unhcr.org/news/press/2020/4/5ea035ba4/ Policy Practice . beware-long-term-damage-human-rights-refugee-rights- 2 See www.who.int/publications-detail/preparedness- coronavirus-pandemic.html, accessed 23 April 2020. prevention-and-control-of-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)- 5 See www.rescue.org/press-release/irc-world-risks-1-billion- for-refugees-and-migrants-in-non-camp-settings. cases-and-32-million-deaths-covid-19-across-fragile. Vol. X, Number 2, April–June 2020 MIGRATION POLICY PRACTICE 3 In several countries, most notably in the United States strained resources in the health-care system; lack of as Joanne van Selm (Eurasylum) discusses in her article access to health services for populations in remote for this special issue of MPP, policies introduced during areas; and the fact that migrants may not be aware of the last three years to deter irregular immigrants and the availability of health care to them, irrespective of to limit opportunities for people to regularize or make their status. more permanent their ties to the country, risk making immigrants more vulnerable. Such policies could The COVID-19 pandemic might also exacerbate have consequences which could seriously impact the inequality in access to health care for migrants in an health of everyone. Many lower paid immigrants live irregular status, especially if internal movements are in over-crowded apartments or houses, which means restricted and information is not available in a language that the type of