(Not That) Essential: A Scoping Review of Migrant Workers' Access to Health Services and Social Protection during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Satrio Nindyo Istiko,Jo Durham,Lana Elliott

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052981

Abstract

Migrant workers have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine their access to health services and social protection during the pandemic, we conducted an exploratory scoping review on experiences of migrant workers in three countries with comparable immigration, health, and welfare policies: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. After screening 961 peer-reviewed and grey literature sources, five studies were included. Using immigration status as a lens, we found that despite more inclusive policies in response to the pandemic, temporary migrant workers, especially migrant farm workers and international students, remained excluded from health services and social protection. Findings demonstrate that exploitative employment practices, precarity, and racism contribute to the continued exclusion of temporary migrant workers. The interplay between these factors, with structural racism at its core, reflect the colonial histories of these countries and their largely neoliberal approaches to immigration. To address this inequity, proactive action that recognizes and targets these structural determinants at play is essential.

Highlights

Migrant workers, defined by International Labour Organization (ILO) [1] as “international migrant individuals of working age and older who are either employed or unemployed in their current country of residence” (p. ix), continue to be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic [2–5]
The results indicate that despite being two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand-based empirical evidence exploring access to health services and social protection among the migrant workers remain limited
Two of the Canada-based papers focused on temporary migrant workers working in farms [40,42]

Summary

Introduction

Migrant workers, defined by International Labour Organization (ILO) [1] as “international migrant individuals of working age and older who are either employed or unemployed in their current country of residence” (p. ix), continue to be disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic [2–5]. Accounting for 4.7% of the total global workforce, two-thirds of migrant workers reside in high-income countries [1,6], and are often employed in essential sectors, where physical distancing can be difficult and access to protective equipment limited [7,8], resulting in increased potential exposure to COVID-19 [9–11]. Lack of commitment from host countries to guarantee access to health promoting resources exacerbates the vulnerability of migrant workers [12]. These health promoting resources are often embedded within health services and social protection schemes and include health care, employment, housing, and welfare support [13,14]. World Health Organization (WHO) recently reviewed COVID-19-related policies globally and argued that high-income countries, such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, have enacted inclusive policies that should enable access to health services and social protection for all migrants, including migrant workers [15]. There is, a need to investigate whether the promise of inclusive policies outlined in the literature is matched by the lived experience of migrant workers’ access to health services and social protection during the COVID-19 pandemic

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion