UNIC Lecture Series

The COVID19 crisis has significant impact on the governance of migration and migration-related diversities. The governance of migration has changed in the context of the new mobilities and immobilities at times of the pandemic. This challenges conventional ways of thinking for instance on asylum policy and return policies. The governance of migration-related diversities, such as in integration policies, has also changed in the context of the pandemic. The functioning of various integrating institutions, such as education and the labour market, has been disturbed. At the same time there are more and more migrants that have been captured in the immobilities of the pandemic, and eager to engage in some form of incorporation process.

It has been more than 3 months since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Turkey. Government efforts have kept number of deaths relatively low and the health system so far appears to be coping reasonably well. However, real challenges in managing the pandemic remain. One of the most acute challenges relates to Turkey’s vast refugee and migrant population. The number of Syrian refugees, asylum seekers from a range of countries, and irregular migrants in the country surpasses 5 million. Most of them lead precarious lives in difficult circumstances, making them particularly vulnerable to contracting and spreading the virus. The Turkish government needs to consider the specific circumstances and needs of this population. Bearing in mind that COVID-19 does not recognize borders — and that protecting refugees is an international responsibility — improved international cooperation is urgently needed. It would be unrealistic to expect Turkey to address these challenges alone. Turkey will need additional resources. But funding is not the only avenue of burden-sharing. These are exceptional times. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned countries inward, exacerbating prospects for international cooperation.

It has been more than 3 months since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Turkey. Government efforts have kept number of deaths relatively low and the health system so far appears to be coping reasonably well. However, real challenges in managing the pandemic remain. One of the most acute challenges relates to Turkey’s vast refugee and migrant population. The number of Syrian refugees, asylum seekers from a range of countries, and irregular migrants in the country surpasses 5 million. Most of them lead precarious lives in difficult circumstances, making them particularly vulnerable to contracting and spreading the virus. The Turkish government needs to consider the specific circumstances and needs of this population. Bearing in mind that COVID-19 does not recognize borders — and that protecting refugees is an international responsibility — improved international cooperation is urgently needed. It would be unrealistic to expect Turkey to address these challenges alone. Turkey will need additional resources. But funding is not the only avenue of burden-sharing. These are exceptional times. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned countries inward, exacerbating prospects for international cooperation.

In a context of increased migration and overexposure of mobile individuals to social risks, the social protection of diaspora populations has become an area of concern across Europe. However, there is still substantial variation in how EU Member States respond to the needs of their nationals residing abroad. Such variation is also observed in the emergency measures that European countries have adopted for their non-resident nationals in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture focuses on EU states’ policy (re)actions affecting the diaspora, from travel restrictions and repatriation initiatives to consular assistance in host countries and specific measures adopted for returnees.

The pandemic pushed European states to a radical shift in priorities. Migration issues, at first, took a back seat in political agendas. We also saw significant reduction in civil society engagement, determined by increasing restrictions to social activity. In a relatively short time, however, new political and civil strategies emerged. Some governments, for example, showed radical instrumentalism in allowing temporary status to migrants in order to face lack of workforce in specific sectors, while the civil society structured 'creative' forms of solidarity. These questions and a general overview on how Covid-19 affected the approach towards migration in Europe will be the focus of this lecture.

This lecture elaborates the current economic, social, and health risks and challenges faced by irregular migrant workers during the Covid-19 pandemic in many parts of the world. It is already documented that in the pandemic climate these migrant workers lose their jobs (and/or housing, in the case of domestic care works) without prior notice, have a risk of infection but cannot go to health services with the fear of being arrested, suffer from the high prices of hygiene and food products, and are stuck in the immigration county without ability to return home. This lecture takes the case of Turkey where many irregular migrant workers reside and work, and elaborates their situation in the Covid-19 pandemic period. Moreover, a special emphasis is made on the case of irregular migrant workers in Istanbul.

On 16 March 2020, the EU has brought a decision on Temporary Restriction on Non-Essential Travel to the EU in view of COVID-19, already extended to mid-June. Although there are the exemptions to that decision for persons in need of international protection or who must be admitted for other humanitarian reasons, in practice vast majority of refugees and asylum seekers, including those who move irregularly, have faced limitations in accessing EU territory and a possibility to seek international protection. The several EU Member States have in general suspended registration, or limited access only upon prior notification via phone or electronic-services, or allowed applications only for exceptional cases and/or for vulnerable persons. The lecture will focus on the access to territory and asylum system and how the restrictions posed by COVID-19 measures influence the right to access to international protection. The focus will be put at the situation on southeastern EU borders, where so-called Balkan Route in 2015-2016 served as a corridor for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants on their way to Germany and further north.

The pandemic of Covid-19 imposes an unprecedented threat to our societies. To identify the causes and anticipate the consequences we may consider two types of exposures: The viral, rapidly spreading, albeit, only the tip of the iceberg of contaminated individuals are being tested; The stress-related exposure characterized by the wave of health- and threat-related information, the effects of social distanciation, lockdown, etc… and the fear and realizations of an economic recession.

Addressing the context of the pandemic, the lecture will briefly introduce Epidemiology in view of old and new epidemics to learn about causation and mediation in social science.

In the last couple of weeks, I have revisited Susan Sontag's famous essay on the uses of illness/disease as controlling metaphors in the hope that it may raise my students’ consciousness of the ways in which health crises of the kind we are living through may provoke different types of reactions among political leaders, scholars or just common folk. Although, of course, Sontag focused her essay on other types of diseases, the sort of discourses that are emerging around the Covid19 epidemic can be seen to resemble in several ways those used in the past with regard to other so-called "cosmic" illnesses. Sontag raises a cautionary note in particular regarding the moralistic meanings often associated to these metaphors which can mark and stigmatize specific social groups as contributing to the spread of the disease. Needless to say, the existence of feelings of mistrust, prejudice, contempt or even bigotry against those groups in specific societies is likely to boost those (injurious) uses of the metaphors.

Asylum seekers in Ireland are housed in high-density communal accommodation contracted by the State from private sector providers under a system known as Direct Provision.  Residents of DP centres may be there for a period of years in a system in which few have the right to work and social integration within the host society is extremely limited.  Now, the Covid-19 crisis poses severe problems for those residents. The observation of public health directives on social distancing is impossible in most cases, with residents having extremely restrictive personal space. Apart from a high risk of Covid-19 outbreaks, particular problems arise for those doing essential frontline work or who may need to self-isolate for various reasons.    Cork City of Sanctuary is a hybrid model based on a UK precedent which enables statutory and voluntary agencies and migrant communities to build trust, improve consultative processes, provide enhanced services and monitor delivery and compliance. It also seeks to explore whether lessons can be learned from Covid-19 responses for the better future management of the asylum system in general.   E-Mail: unic-network@ruhr-uni-bochum.de Website: https://www.unic.eu/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3RlhEUY... Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnicLecture

The Corona Virus Covid-19 is changing and challenging the social, economic, cultural and political world we are living in. Our everyday lifeworld was shocked by friends and relatives affected or threatened by disease, by lock-downs and minimizing direct social encounters, by unemployment, short time working and breakdown of companies. Individual and democratic rights are suspended, training and education turned to virtual methods.   

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