The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated in an unprecedented manner the tremendous interdependence between global health and human mobility. Despite the calls to ‘leave no one behind’, global health responses to COVID-19 often appeared to avoid the problem of pre-existing social and health disparities by assuming an undifferentiated mass of citizens equally equipped to protect themselves and others, to move or stay put.
In many cases, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic accentuated unequal access to mobility which exacerbated existing health inequalities, expressed in the differential effects of both COVID-19 and mobility restrictions on migrants’ and refugees’ health.
This research roundtable aims to offer a space for discussion and reflection on the role of mobility in health inequalities in the wake of COVID-19.
The roundtable will discuss:
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What can we learn from COVID-19 about the impact of (im)mobility on migrants’ health and migrants’ access to healthcare?
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How can (national) healthcare systems, often perceived as static, respond to the needs of people ‘on the move’?
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How can migrants’ experiences inform, enrich and specify calls for universal health coverage?
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What are future directions opened by advocacy, academic and policy research on migrants’ access to healthcare during the pandemic and how can these claims be pursued beyond the scope of a crisis?
