Covid-19 pandemic and migrant workers

Abstract

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), almost 64% of international migrants were migrant workers in 2017. The ILO suggests that both the countries of origin and destination gain from the contribution of the migrant workers – in destination countries, the migrant workers contribute to growth and development, while the countries of their origin largely benefit from their remittances and from the skills they acquire during their migration experience once they come back. The intra-country migrant workers play an important role in the economic dynamics of countries like India. This chapter considers the cases of both intra-country and inter-country migrant workers. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely disrupted economic activities worldwide, leading to large-scale retrenchment. Recovery prospect of employment varies across sectors. For international migrant workers, the retrenchment has serious long-run consequences for the economic health of their countries of origin due to drop in remittances. The miserable situation of the migrant workers in India following the sudden lockdown created concern all over the world. This chapter makes an attempt to study the impact of Covid-19 on migrant workers separately for those who were forced to come back to their countries of origin and those who could not, along with the impact on their countries of origin and destination and also the situation of migrant workers in India and discusses some policy options at national and multilateral levels to address the problems faced by migrant workers. The entire analysis is based on data from ILO, United Nations, World Bank and various international agencies and newspapers.