On the 4th of August, the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism hold a webinar on the topic: High Skilled Migration during and post COVID-19, Perspectives from Latin America and Asia. Andrés Solimano, a lecturer at the Latin American Centre of Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and founder, the International Centre for Globalization and Development was one of the speakers of this webinar. In his speech, he discussed the contradictions of COVID-19 on migration flows.
Countries of Global North affected the most
Prof. Solimano started his speech with the prediction of the International Monetary Fund, based on which the world economy will contract between 5% to 6% this year. It is the biggest contraction since the great depression in the 1930s. However, the economic contraction affects more the developed economies of the Global North and less the developing countries of the Global South. It is mainly because developing countries, such as China and India keep positive growth despite the pandemic.
The contraction of Global North economies has a negative effect on skilled migration from the South, who migrate to the countries of North. “The fact, that the main destination areas of the world economy are shrinking so fast and deep is going to affect quite sharply these flows”: Prof.Andrés Solimano.
Sectors with migrant workers affected the most
According to Prof. Solimano, there exist three sectors with migrant workers. The first one is the sector, which has been hit the most with COVID-19 crises. Many migrant workers working in tourism, entertainment, and retail have lost their jobs. However, jobs in the second sector are mostly industrial and have not been significantly affected by the pandemic. Surprisingly, the last sector has according to Prof. Solimano the potential to lure and employ even more migrant workers. This sector includes high-tech jobs, medical services, internet and communication platforms, e-commerce, and e-education. As an example, Prof. Solimano mentioned countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, which have been hiring more foreign medical workers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that, Amazon has been hiring more and more people in order to meet the demands as well.
Impact of COVID-19 on migrant workers from Latin America and Asia
In the end, Prof. Solimano talked about the impact of COVID-19 on the countries of Latin America, in which economies have been shrinking. Even more, the economies of countries, that are usual destinations of migrant workers are contracting. Regarding Asia, the situation in South and East Asia is based on Prof. Solimano not that bad, since these economies are still growing.
Possible new destination for migrant workers
However, he expects a significant change regarding destination of migrant workers: “There will be a geographical reconfiguration of the migrant flows”: Prof. Andrés Solimano. This process will happen as a result of economic and political crises in countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, that was a global magnet for foreign migrants.
Michal Tengeri, PhD Candidate in Asia-Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University Twitter: @Michal8810