Emotions, inequalities and crises: Ecuadorian migrants in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article examines narratives of transnational belonging and transnational practices of care between a group of Ecuadorian migrants in Spain and Italy and their families and friends in Ecuador during the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Drawing on the concepts of transnational affective economies (Wilding et al., International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2020, 23, 639), the circulation of care (Baldassar & Merla, Transnational families, migration and the circulation of care: understanding mobility and absence in family life. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London, New York, 2014) and transnational forms of belonging (Boccagni & Baldassar, Emotions, Space and Society, 2015, 16, 73), we look at how despite their still precarious social and labour conditions in destination-which were exacerbated during the pandemic-Ecuadorian migrants activated different forms of belonging and transnational care. Findings reveal that emotions had a crucial role in enabling the transnational circulation of care between family members and friends and a revival of migrants' sense of national belonging. We argue that the crisis generated by COVID-19 was the occasion for migrants to revisit their sense of belonging as well as their awareness of south-north inequalities since they experienced the crisis simultaneously in Ecuador, Spain and Italy. At the same time, emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger and concern for their families and communities triggered subjective understandings of local and global inequalities that reaffirmed their migration project.

Towards a typology of social protection for migrants and refugees in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 health crisis has put to the test Latin America's already precarious social protection systems. This paper comparatively examines what type of social protection has been provided, by whom, and to what extent migrant and refugee populations have been included in these programmes in seven countries of the region during the COVID-19 pandemic, between March and December 2020. We develop a typology of models of social protection highlighting the assemblages of actors, different modes of protection and the emerging migrants' subjectification in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay in relation to Non-Contributory Social Transfer (NCST) programmes and other actions undertaken by state and non-state actors. The analysis is based on 85 semi-structured interviews with representatives of national and local governments, International Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, and migrant-led organisations across 16 cities, and a systematic review of regulatory frameworks in the country-case studies. The proposed typology shows broad heterogeneity and complexity regarding different degrees of inclusion of migrant and refugee populations, particularly in pre-existing and new NCST programmes. These actions are furthering notions of migrant protection that are contingent and crisis-driven, imposing temporal limitations that often selectively exclude migrants based on legal status. It also brings to the fore the path-dependent nature of policies and practices of exclusion/inclusion in the region, which impact on migrants' effective access to social and economic rights, while shaping the broader dynamics of migration governance in the region.