The Political Economy of a Modern Pandemic: Assessing Impacts of COVID-19 on Migrants and Immigrants in Canada

• Published in: Alternate routes Vol. 32; no. 1; p. 137
• Main Authors: Shields, John, Alrob, Zainab Abu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Athabasca Athabasca University 01-01-2021
• Subjects: Borders; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Crises; Health risks; Housing; Immigrants; Immigration policy; Inequality; Labor migration; Neoliberalism; Pandemics; Political economy; Racialization; Canada
• ISSN: 0702-8865; 1923-7081

This paper explores the COVID-19 crisis with a focus on immigration and migration in Canada using a political economy lens. Neoliberalism has played a major role in shaping pandemic impacts and the responses to it. We critically assesses the deep structural inequalities that have caused disproportionate COVID-19 impacts on migrants and immigrants. Migrants and immigrants carry the unequal burden of COVID-19 because of racialization, labour precariousness, and exposure to health risks on job sites and in the poor neighborhoods and over crowded housing in which many live in. Mobility and borders have also been cast as a particular threat during the pandemic even though domestic sources are the main sources of contagion. We examine the use of borders as filtering mechanisms during COVID-19 and the negative impacts this has had on migrant populations. While crises like pandemics pose many dangers they also open up policy windows through which progressive change may be realized. We reflect on these possibilities.