In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries closed their borders to nonessential travel and scaled back visa and immigration case processing. Yet a number of critical sectors such as agriculture and health care rely on foreign workers, raising the prospect of looming labor gaps. Border closures and processing delays have also dramatically narrowed access to international protection, with resettlement operations put on hold and the ability to file and in turn process asylum claims fundamentally curtailed.
This virtual convening of the Transatlantic Council on Migration explored the pandemic’s effects on international migration and mobility, and the factors governments should consider as they reopen their borders and migration channels.
Among the questions discussed during this meeting:
The following reflection draws from an early, skeletal version written for this convening:
Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19
Around the world, governments are grappling with how to combat the COVID-19 pandemic while also managing the economic fallout of policies put in place to stop the virus’ spread. Global migration has dropped sharply amid border closures and travel restrictions. This reflection, by MPI President Emeritus Demetrios G. Papademetriou, takes stock of policy responses to the pandemic thus far, and of the challenges (and some opportunities) on the horizon for migration systems, labor markets, and integration of newcomers.