Call for expert commentaries on the dynamics between displaced migration and COVID-19
As COVID-19 has spread globally since 2019, public health responses have included travel restrictions, quarantines, curfews, event cancellations and facility closures. Importantly, they have also included social, legal and political changes that have significant implications for displaced migrants and refugees, including their respective status inside countries of arrival and settlement, alongside a further hardening of borders.
Moreover, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated Europe as the current centre of the pandemic, public discourse has done little to highlight the exacerbating effect of this global health crisis on a number of European refugee camps which are already overcrowded and lack organised sanitation and healthcare.
Some charities and NGOs have voiced concern over the immense vulnerability of refugee populations without access to basic facilities, and which in light of COVID-19 place members of the world’s forcibly displaced population in an even more precarious situation. In response to this rising threat, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has urged for the immediate evacuation of the migrants and asylum seekers in camps on the Greek islands.
In light of this evolving context, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power invites expert commentaries on this critical but under-reported and poorly understood topic. We are seeking to curate and sustain an on-going series of blogs that may be of use to a variety of researchers, practitioners and stakeholders. We are interested in local and global discussions and submissions can focus on any geographical location. Submissions may span:
Blogs should range between 800 and 1500 words and initial inquiries can be sent to nasar.meer@ed.ac.uk. Commentaries will be added on an on-going basis.
Moreover, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated Europe as the current centre of the pandemic, public discourse has done little to highlight the exacerbating effect of this global health crisis on a number of European refugee camps which are already overcrowded and lack organised sanitation and healthcare.
Some charities and NGOs have voiced concern over the immense vulnerability of refugee populations without access to basic facilities, and which in light of COVID-19 place members of the world’s forcibly displaced population in an even more precarious situation. In response to this rising threat, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has urged for the immediate evacuation of the migrants and asylum seekers in camps on the Greek islands.
In light of this evolving context, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power invites expert commentaries on this critical but under-reported and poorly understood topic. We are seeking to curate and sustain an on-going series of blogs that may be of use to a variety of researchers, practitioners and stakeholders. We are interested in local and global discussions and submissions can focus on any geographical location. Submissions may span:
- Current health policies for displaced people in a historical perspective
- Legal responsibilities for health provision to asylum seekers and refugees
- The impact of external or peripheral border practice on displaced migrants in light of a health crisis
- Governance of pandemics for ‘non-citizens’
- The bio-politics of refugees as patients
- The racialisation of ‘sickness’
- The implications of domestic policies relating to asylum seekers and refugees during an on-going health crisis (i.e. access to healthcare, detention centres, hostile environment, etc.)
- Previous health crises and their effect on displaced populations
Blogs should range between 800 and 1500 words and initial inquiries can be sent to nasar.meer@ed.ac.uk. Commentaries will be added on an on-going basis.
