Covid-19 and international migration : elements of an analytical framework

Abstract

What are the links between the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and international migration? The paper addresses the three following questions: 1. Are migrants more (or less) susceptible than non-migrants to get the disease? Is COVID lethality (ratio deaths / cases) higher (lower) among migrants compared with non-migrants in the same population? Each of these questions must be addressed separately in migrants’ origin and destination populations. 2. Is international migration a factor of circulation of the virus? If so, in what direction: from origin to destination? The other way around? In both directions? 3. What ramifications do states’, firms’ and other actors’ responses to COVID-19 produce on countries (of origin; of destination) and groups of population (natives; migrants)?