Leveraging Migration to Recover Better from COVID-19 and Achieve the 2030 Agenda

One year into the Decade of Action aimed at delivering sustainable development for all, COVID-19 has significantly threatened the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The positive contributions of migrants and migration to advance inclusive growth and sustainable development – as outlined in the 2030 Agenda – have been set back, with many migrants and their families bearing the brunt of travel restrictions and lockdowns, increased unemployment, and uneven access to social protection.

Although there are now more international migrants in the world than ever, with over 281 million migrants at the beginning of 2021, the expected growth of international migration slowed by 27 per cent over the past year. The enormous morbidity and mortality impact of this global pandemic, as well as the related response measures such as restrictions on mobility and other measures enforced around the world to combat the transmission of COVID-19, will have long-term negative effects on sustainable development. While often necessary to curb the spread of the virus, these measures have deepened the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

As COVID-19 related mobility restrictions have been imposed, many migrants face increased challenges that lead to situations of vulnerability, risk and exploitation that must be urgently addressed if we are to reach the Goals set forth in the 2030 Agenda. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been stranded in transit, many lacking resources to return home. Numerous others have been forced, by circumstances and in some cases by policies, to return to their home countries. Returning migrants are often unable to access employment due to lockdowns and other restrictions, thereby facing significant challenges to providing for themselves and their families. Reduced pathways for regular for migration, triggered by lockdown measures and border closures, have pushed too many migrants into irregular situations, which make them more susceptible to exploitation and abuse, including human trafficking and forced labour.

The pandemic is disproportionally impacting those who are already in vulnerable situations, including migrants and displaced persons who often fall outside of social safety nets and lack access to basic services. While migrants are not inherently more vulnerable to, or at heightened risk of, contracting infectious diseases, migrants may be more affected by and vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19 due to the conditions in which they migrate, live and work. Situations of vulnerability are exacerbated by increased levels of stigma, xenophobia, and racism that migrants have faced since the onset of the pandemic.

Extreme poverty and food insecurity have also driven humanitarian needs to new levels and further intensified on-going crises that, without adequate intervention, will have far-reaching impacts on fragility and displacement. The majority of the world’s 50.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in countries that reported high levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition before 2020. The pandemic is deepening the dependence of IDPs on external food assistance, increasing protection risk and reducing their chances for durable solutions.6 As of the start of 2021, 235 million people require humanitarian assistance, presenting enormous challenges for the international community and its commitment to leave no one behind.

Meanwhile, migrants around the world play an important role in the response to COVID-19. Among the 20 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 cases as of November 2020, at least eight – the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Chile and Belgium – significantly rely on foreign-born health care workers. Further, on average, 13 per cent of all “key workers” in the European Union (EU) alone are migrants.9 This means that migrants themselves have a key role to play in pandemic response and recovery.