Q&A with Anna Triandafyllidou
In the early days of the pandemic, CERC Migration Chair Anna Triandafyllidou recognized that migrants and societies around the world were experiencing unprecedented challenges. With the encouragement of her publishing partner at IMISCOE, she released a Call for Papers to which the academic community enthusiastically responded. That Call came to fruition this December – almost 18 months later – with the open access release of the book, Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception (external link) . CERC Connections asked Anna about the effects of the pandemic, both abroad and closer to home.
What are the lessons learned from the pandemic that you found the most surprising?
Everything surprised me. We would never have imagined that mobility around the world would come to a standstill; that we would close the borders, even to citizens, and that all our systems of migration would be interrupted, or that the lack of temporary migration would become a problem. A country’s reliance on temporary workers has always been based on the long-held assumption that these workers will always want to come, and that there will always be a resource pool of workers. But at the start of the pandemic, we saw countries take extreme measures, such as Canada and Germany which chartered flights to bring in workers for agriculture or the broader food processing sector.
The lack of free movement that we witnessed within our countries was unheard of for liberal democracies. In Canada, for instance, people were prevented from travelling between provinces, between regions, even prevented from leaving their districts. And who would have ever thought there would be a hard border between the U.S. and Canada? Of course, we hope this all remains exceptional and not precedent-setting.
Probably, the most profound and far reaching lesson, that was received well beyond academia, was just how essential were so many frontline positions, which typically are low paid and held by immigrant workers. Many of these workers had to experience either increased health risks in their roles or reduced freedoms. While their vulnerability has been widely understood, we have learned that low-skilled workers are as important as high skilled when it comes to keeping an economy and society running.
Where do you think change is most urgently needed, and where is change most likely to happen?
The pandemic has opened the door for universal health care coverage. The legislation of most countries sets out that, in the case of a contagious disease, all persons should be treated for the benefit of public health. But I believe there now could be a positive expansion of this concept – that access to universal health care becomes recognized as a universal human right.
With a new public appreciation for “essential” work, there is potential that we will better recognize the value of all workers, particularly those who work in “3D” jobs (dirty, dangerous and demanding) such as agriculture, caring or cleaning services. It is urgent that wage structures and workers’ rights better reflect this valuable contribution. If we don’t change conditions, we risk experiencing a collapse in vital sectors such as health care and agriculture, when workers simply cannot be found.
I am also hopeful that we will see a more permanent approach to emergency benefits like unemployment insurance. We saw during the pandemic that benefits were extended to people who did not normally qualify. It has become widely recognized in many countries that it is important to extend emergency allowances to everyone, not just citizens. Platform workers in Canada, for example, were supported for the first time, and now we see talks underway to create welfare provisions for this worker category in both Canada and the European Union, where a Directive is being discussed as we speak.
Governments and educational institutions need to re-think their responsibility towards international students. During the pandemic, we came to see how vulnerable they were, how dependent they were on study permits and the jobs they held through their university or college. It prompted a lot of discussion on what responsibility higher education institutions have to the students they admit, which I expect will lead to better support services for international students.
Change that is important but less likely to happen is better treatment of asylum seekers. There is always a trade off: do you protect the residents and citizens from getting a disease? Or do you honour your responsibility for asylum? It is a tough question but it still begs an answer, both normative and political.
Has the pandemic changed the academic field of migration in any way?
An interesting idea that has emerged is the idea of “effective residents.” Throughout the pandemic, we had to consider who truly is an “effective resident” when deciding who would receive health coverage, or who needed their status extended, or who should be re-admitted when caught outside the country during a border closure. Someone may be a temporary worker in the sense that they are in a country for a year or two, but not necessarily for a lifetime, but still they have their life there. They should not be treated differently from a citizen, though many countries responded in different ways.
As I noted, we came to look differently at the status of those migrants or asylum seekers who were “temporary” but working in frontline industries, such as care work and agriculture, and were making vital contributions to the community. We now recognize that we need a new basis for understanding and assessing membership and citizenship. While someone may not have official citizenship, when should they be considered a full member of a community? In some countries, for example, non-citizens are able to vote in local elections which is de facto giving them membership. Alternatively, membership can also be transnational. The pandemic has taught us that “we’re all in this together” and national boundaries are pointless when a global, collaborative effort is required.
What was your motivation for dedicating the book to your CERC Migration colleagues?
I wanted to recognize the pandemic situation that we were all facing – working from home, each with our challenges – and how the team pivoted from one day to the next, making the best of a rather bad situation and showing extraordinary resilience. So many of our colleagues were directly impacted as newcomers to Toronto. It’s already hard to go to a new place. But in this environment, our staff, who were new to the city, could not visit museums, exhibition or concerts. They could not make friends, not even meet people in person – the kinds of things that make it exciting to settle in a new place. They endured a great deal, and I am grateful for the sacrifices they made to join our team. Likewise I am grateful to the “local” members of my team who struggled with care responsibilities towards parents or children but still worked as hard as ever.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
