The Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on International Migration: A Global or a More Bordered World?
Author(s): Halim Nezihoglu and Senol Dane*
Abstract
Introduction: This paper will review the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on international migration through a wide perspective that opens up some critical questions with regard to globalization and global challenges to universal norms and freedoms.
Method: This research is based on literature review through qualitative analysis of primary and secondary sources–including published reports, surveys, and articles. Studies on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced migration have mostly focused on some specific effects in particular countries with micro-level surveys. Research papers with a wider perspective that analyse general effects of the pandemic on flows of migration at the macro level, as a global phenomenon, have been relatively in short supply.
Results: Although the number of international migrants decreased in general during the pandemic crisis, even such a global calamity that deeply affected billions and killed millions of people all over the world did not prove to have the potential to stop global migration, primarily illegal migration.
Conclusion: A more bordered world in the era of globalization is not likely to produce the desired result in mitigating inflows of migration if the West and the Global North do not effectively address migrant-generating root causes.