MPI's Migration Information Source Newsletter

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September 15, 2020

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Feature
Gaps in India's Treatment of Refugees and Vulnerable Internal Migrants Are Exposed by the Pandemic
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/gaps-india-refugees-vulnerable-internal-migrants-pandemic
India has no refugee law and has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, leaving many of its estimated 250,000 recognized refugees in a legal gray area. Meanwhile, more than 450 million internal migrants form the foundation of the country's economy, yet often have trouble accessing government benefits, identity cards, and other services. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought these shared vulnerabilities into stark relief.

Feature
The Digital Divide Hits U.S. Immigrant Households Disproportionately during the COVID-19 Pandemic
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/digital-divide-hits-us-immigrant-households-during-covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the effects of the so-called digital divide for U.S. immigrants and other groups with reduced online connectivity. Internet access and the skills to navigate digital environments have become even more critical for work, education, and health care during the public-health crisis, yet immigrants make up a disproportionately large share of U.S. residents unable to take advantage of these tools.


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EDITOR'S NOTE

What happens when refugees and other migrants are caught up in disasters that destabilize their new homes? Sadly, there have been no shortage of opportunities to find out.

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on migrant workers, including in places such as the United States and the Persian Gulf, and the virus has spread quickly in confined camps for refugees and asylum seekers.

Additional disasters have been heaped on top of this public-health crisis. Most notably, fires devastated the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos last week, displacing thousands of people in the overcrowded camp. The consequences of this fire will reverberate through multiple levels: for local dynamics between residents and new arrivals in Lesvos, for Greece's relationship with migrants, and for Europe's attitude towards the Eastern Mediterranean and external borders more broadly. Hanne Beirens, the Director of MPI Europe, has outlined some of the steps necessary to develop a path forward in an excellent new commentary.

Refugees and other migrants often bear the brunt of a range of disasters worldwide. For instance, a sizeable portion of the 200 casualties from the August 4 explosion that devastated Beirut were migrants from Syria and elsewhere, and many of Lebanon's 1.5 million refugees--the largest per capita population worldwide--may suffer economic consequences of the fallout.

As new arrivals, migrants often lack the social safety nets to fall back on when jobs, homes, and communities are wiped away. They may not know the local language, have the skills to navigate opportunities for aid, or be able to access government benefit systems.

This vulnerability makes them prime targets for abuse and exploitation. Some unauthorized migrant farmworkers in California were encouraged to ignore evacuation orders ahead of recent wildfires that have ravaged the state, and others have been unpaid or underpaid for work such as hurricane cleanup. After 2011 flooding in Thailand, migrants paid high fees to illicit brokers who would take them on dangerous trips to the Myanmar border.

Still, there have been reports of remarkable recovery, strength, and resilience in the face of crisis. Refugees raced to help in the aftermath of the Beirut blast, and migrants rallying together are a feature of disasters from storms in Iowa to flooding in Thailand. Paradoxically, migrants can be both especially vulnerable and especially resilient in the face of crisis. "Their resilience arises partly from the everyday inequalities that they already confront, and partly because of previous experiences of disasters," scholars Shinya Uekusa and Steve Matthewman wrote in a 2017 analysis.

Maegan Hendow examined some of these issues in a 2018 article in the Migration Information Source that remains tragically relevant. Migrants caught in crisis can find themselves in a protection gap, she wrote, unable to fully access assistance from governments, aid groups, or international organizations. While it is impossible to tell when the next disaster will strike, it is a safe bet that migrant populations may be exposed to some of its hardest impacts.

Best regards,

Julian Hattem

Editor, Migration Information Source

[email protected]


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NEW FROM MPI

Greece's Moria Tragedy: The Crash Test for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum
www.migrationpolicy.org/news/greece-moria-tragedy-crash-test-eu-pact-migration-and-asylum
By Hanne Beirens

Venezuelan Migration, Crime, and Misperceptions: A Review of Data from Colombia, Peru, and Chile
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/venezuelan-immigration-crime-colombia-peru-chile
By Dany Bahar, Meagan Dooley, and Andrew Selee

Inmigrantes venezolanos, crimen y percepciones falsas: Un análisis de los datos en Colombia, Perú y Chile
www.migrationpolicy.org/research/immigracion-venezolana-crimen-colombia-peru-chile
By Dany Bahar, Meagan Dooley, and Andrew Selee


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HAVE YOU READ

International Students in the United States
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/international-students-united-states-2017

Can Return Migration Revitalize the Baltics? Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Engage Their Diasporas, with Mixed Results
www.migrationpolicy.org/article/can-return-migration-revitalize-baltics-estonia-latvia-and-lithuania-engage-their-diasporas

Naturalization Trends in the United States
[link removed]


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MPI IS HIRING

The Migration Policy Institute seeks exceptional candidates for a new position. Learn more and please share with your networks!

Program Assistant, National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
www.migrationpolicy.org/about/work-mpi#Program%20Assistant,%20NCIIP


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MEDIA CORNER

Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas features writer Roberto Lovato exploring his family's experience as part of a broader story of migration and violence in El Salvador and the United States.

Former Iranian refugee Dina Nayeri meditates on her own story and those of other asylees in The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You.

The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw tells the story of the roughly 1 million displaced people left in Germany at the end of World War II.

In One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger, journalist Matthew Yglesias argues for dramatically increasing the U.S. population.

Anne Marie Baylouny examines political dynamics in refugee-receiving countries in When Blame Backfires: Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon.

Targeted to teens and young adults, In Search of Safety: Voices of Refugees tells the story of five refugees in the United States.

The Guardian's Today in Focus podcast recently explored unauthorized immigrants it has labeled "Europe's dreamers."


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