ABSTRACT
This chapter starts by introducing the policy and political context of the Covid-19 crisis, surveying some of the changes it brought to immigration policies in different countries: border closures for non-citizens; disruption for temporary migrants; and special arrangements for essential (migrant) workers like doctors and nurses or farmworkers to ensure emergency wards are staffed and the food processing chain is not disrupted. The chapter critically reviews these changes and discusses how the pandemic forces us to rethink notions like membership, citizenship, and community, but also the sustainability of our migration systems in relation particularly to what was thought of as ‘disposable’ workers who are now considered ‘essential’, such as in agriculture or the care industry. This chapter shows that the global pandemic’s specific tensions for migration are linked to the more long-term tensions of globalisation, migration, and the nation-state, suggesting that the pandemic is but a magnifying lens.
