Migrant workers face layoffs, health issues and uncertainty worldwide

The Centre on International Migration, Remittances and Diaspora, Lahore School of Economics inaugurated its second international conference virtually on the 27th of October. The webinar, entitled, “Impact of COVID-19 on Migrants, Migration Flows and Remittances: Focus on South and SouthEast Asia” was participated by some of the most renowned, national and international, migration researchers and experts.

Dr Rashid Amjad, Director, CIMRAD, began the proceedings of the webinar by welcoming the guests and thanking the organizers at CIMRAD, speakers and discussants. He asserted that close to 90 million people were expected to fall into poverty as a repercussion of Covid-19, and in reference to the South and South East Asian economies, the future of migrant workers does not seem encouraging. Aspiring migrants had to borrow and spend huge amounts to obtain work visas but are now facing an uncertain future as destination countries toughened their migration policies and air travel remains limited. Amidst all this, he highlighted the opportunity the crisis has provided for governments and policy institutes to think through the migration processes and conditions of work for migrants.

The two day webinar tried to look at the impact of Covid-19 on three different aspects of the migration process; the migrants, the migration flows and remittances.

Prof PhillipeFargues, the founding director of Migration Policy Centre in Florence, set the tune for the webinar by raising the questions about the nature and impact of the pandemic. The role of migrants in spreading the disease was also looked at. Dr Rashid Amjad, Director, CIMRAD, in response to this summed up that in most countries the migrants were not responsible for spreading the disease as they constituted only a small minority of the population. The