A Message from the Directors, and some Migration Related COVID-19 Resources
Dear friends and colleagues,
We wanted to post this brief message to our communities and networks, near and far, to express our well wishes. We hope that you are keeping healthy and safe, as we continue to live through such difficult and uncertain times.
While we are required right now to work and live more remotely and in varying degrees of isolation, it is important for us to continue to reach out to one another to say that none of the threads that bind us will disappear.
This is especially important for newcomers to Canada, who are facing even more pronounced forms of isolation from their families and communities. So many people are adversely affected, and in a variety of ways, by COVID-19, whether themselves ill or rendered more precarious due to changes in employment, or risks to those living in close quarters, from home to farm worker accommodations to detention centres. We are thinking about the various challenges unfolding. As ever, we have been inspired by the work of IMRC affiliated researchers who have found ways to continue to do the work of outreach and advocacy in altered landscapes and conditions of social distancing. We’ve compiled a list of resources and writing (below) and hope these will provide insight, and continue to inform and connect us during these times.
With best wishes,
Alison Mountz and Kim Rygiel
Resources
Jonathan Crush’s Hungry Cities Project has created a number of resources discussing COVID-19 and migration. A list is available here:
https://hungrycities.net/covid-19-and-food-security/
Jonathan Crush on COVID-19 and the international migration regime:
https://www.balsillieschool.ca/covid-19-and-the-global-migration-regime/
Jenna Hennebry and Janet McLaughlin have collaborated with colleagues to establish the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group. The group's website contains a number of resources related to migrant workers in Canada during the pandemic:
Jenna Hennebry, Janet McLaughlin, and colleagues on the situation of migrant workers in Canada during the pandemic:
Jenna Hennebry, Janet McLaughlin, and colleagues on the government regulation of migrant workers in Canada during the pandemic:
Suzan Ilcan on the new barriers, hurdles, and obstacles faced by privately-sponsored refugees in Canada during the pandemic:
Janet McLaughlin and colleagues on protecting the health and rights of migrant workers in Canada during the pandemic:
https://www.policynote.ca/migrant-workers/
Alison Mountz participated with international scholars in a Balsillie School Global Insights webinar titled “COVID-19: Migration, Refugees and Borders.” A recording is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgHKe739eKo#action=share
Alison Mountz on bordering and vulnerability during the pandemic:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/pandemic-border/many-facets-pandemic-vulnerability/ (also available in Spanish, https://www.opendemocracy.net/es/covid-19-fronteras-aislamiento-social-y-vulnerabilidad-de-los-derechos-humanos/)
Alison Mountz, Ileana Diaz, Shiva Mohan, Monica Romero, Ana Visan (IMRC graduate students) and Kira Williams (IMRC Post-doc) on the impact of the pandemic on international migration researchers:
Margaret Walton-Roberts on COVID-19, public health systems, and international health workers:
https://www.balsillieschool.ca/covid-19-and-global-human-health-resources/
Margaret Walton-Roberts on global health care chains and the pandemic:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/pandemic-border/if-covid-19-titanic-economy-iceberg/
Margaret Walton-Roberts on migrant care labour and the COVID-19 long-term care crisis:
https://www.balsillieschool.ca/migrant-care-labour-and-the-covid-19-long-term-care-crisis-how-did-we-get-here/