Change in anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour and anti‐immigrant prejudice during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from five European countries

During a pandemic, it is vital to identify factors that motivate individuals to behave in ways that limit virus transmission (i.e., anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour). Fear has been suggested to motivate health‐oriented behaviour, yet fear of the virus (i.e., fear of COVID‐19) could have unintended consequences, such as an increase in anti‐immigrant prejudice. In a three‐wave longitudinal study (NT1 = 4275) in five European countries from April to October 2020, we investigated how social norms, the impact of the pandemic on individuals, and intergroup contact affected fear of COVID‐19 and—or in turn—anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour and prejudice towards immigrants. A latent change score model—distinguishing between intra‐ and inter‐individual changes in outcomes—indicated that fear of COVID‐19 influenced neither anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour nor prejudice. Anti‐COVID‐19 behaviour was increased by anti‐COVID‐19 norms (i.e., belief that others perform anti‐COVID‐19 behaviours), while prejudice was influenced by positive and negative direct and mass‐mediated intergroup contact.

Examining labour market hierarchies in Slovakia from the perspective of intra-EU migration and return

This paper applies the concept of hierarchised mobility to study return migration in Slovakia in the context of the country's EU accession. The analysis is based on the national Labour Force Survey dataset, covering a decade of labour migration and return between the 2008/2009 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, concentrating in particular on the short-term labour market outcomes for less skilled return migrants. It is found that even under improved economic conditions, patterns of labour mobility set in the aftermath of the EU's Eastern enlargement continued to persist, together with structural inequalities in the Slovak labour market. Returnees in Slovakia face a markedly higher unemployment rate relative to stayers, and are less likely to be self-employed shortly after their return to Slovakia, compared to stayers or migrants. Returnees were also more exposed to instability in their jobs than migrants and stayers. From this perspective, return migration itself is a reflection of hierarchised mobility, as returnees clearly occupy the least stable jobs, and are the most exposed to instability in their employment. It appears that migration patterns from and to Slovakia are ingrained within the broader functioning of the European labour market.

Spreadable Action: Mapping Connections between the Arts and Action Research through an Arts-Based Research Exhibition

Many Canadian immigrant seniors living independently in Canada face unique challenges such as language barriers, adjusting to a new culture, and isolation from friends and family. Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic these issues have become more complicated. This article explores a form of arts-based research (ABR) as an inquiry into ways that COVID-19 has impacted immigrant seniors in Vancouver, Canada. We situate our inquiry within action research (AR) and explore new methodological possibilities stimulated by merging artistic engagement within the inquiry. Our research is mobilized through two gallery exhibitions of Letters to COVID: an invitation to visually reflect on seniors' experiences. We consider what we might do to facilitate support for these citizens, inviting the public to rethink perceptions and strategies of social inclusion and support for immigrant seniors living independently in Canada.

Immigrant Legal Status among Essential Frontline Workers in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era: IMR

Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has extracted a substantial toll on immigrant communities in the United States, due in part to increased potential risk of exposure for immigrants to COVID-19 in the workplace. In this article, we use federal guidance on which industries in the United States were designated essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, information about the ability to work remotely, and data from the 2019 American Community Survey to estimate the distribution of essential frontline workers by nativity and immigrant legal status. Central to our analysis is a proxy measure of working in the primary or secondary sector of the segmented labor market. Our results indicate that a larger proportion of foreign-born workers are essential frontline workers compared to native-born workers and that 70 percent of unauthorized immigrant workers are essential frontline workers. Disparities in essential frontline worker status are most pronounced for unauthorized immigrant workers and native-born workers in the secondary sector of the labor market. These results suggest that larger proportions of foreign-born workers, and especially unauthorized immigrant workers, face greater risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace than native-born workers. Social determinants of health such as lack of access to health insurance and living in overcrowded housing indicate that unauthorized immigrant essential frontline workers may be more vulnerable to poor health outcomes related to COVID-19 than other groups of essential frontline workers. These findings help to provide a plausible explanation for why COVID-19 mortality rates for immigrants are higher than mortality rates for native-born residents.

The Differential Impact of COVID-19 on Labour Market Outcomes of Immigrants in Canada.

Based on Canadian Labour Force Survey data, we estimate the differential effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on seven labour market outcomes, and separate between recent and established immigrants relative to domestic-born Canadians. We also use Recentered Influence Function (RIF) unconditional quantile regressions to estimate the differential effects across the distribution of outcomes. We find that the pandemic had an adverse effect on the labour market outcomes for all workers, and that the adverse effects were generally larger for immigrants and especially recent immigrants as well as for immigrants at the bottom of the outcome distributions. The adverse effects were generally larger at the earliest waves of the pandemic, and for recent immigrants who were female, less educated, and those with child responsibilities, and for jobs at greater risk of contact with the pandemic.

Sur la base des données de l'Enquête sur la population active du Canada, nous estimons l'effet différentiel de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur sept résultats sur le marché du travail, séparément pour les immigrants récents et établis par rapport aux Canadiens nés au pays. Nous utilisons également des régressions quantiles inconditionnelles de la fonction d'influence recentrée (RIF) pour estimer les effets différentiels sur la distribution des résultats. Nous constatons que la pandémie a eu un effet négatif sur les résultats du marché du travail pour tous les travailleurs, les effets négatifs étaient généralement plus importants pour les immigrants et en particulier les immigrants récents ainsi que pour les immigrants au bas de la distribution des résultats. Les effets néfastes étaient généralement plus importants pour les premières vagues de la pandémie et pour les immigrants récents qui étaient des femmes, moins instruits, ceux qui avaient des responsabilités envers les enfants et pour les emplois les plus à risque d'être en contact avec la pandémie.

The Fears and Hopes of Ukrainian Migrant Workers in Poland in the Pandemic Era.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many immigrants found themselves in extremely unstable situations. The recent contributions show that employment decline in the first several months of the lockdown was higher for migrant workers than for natives. At the same time, migrants were less likely to find new employment in the recovery months. Such circumstances may result in an increased level of anxiety about one's economic situation. On the other hand, an unfavorable environment may induce resources that could help to overcome it. The paper aims to reveal migrants' concerns together with ambitions connected with the economic activity during the pandemic. The study is based on 30 individual in-depth interviews with Ukrainian migrant workers from Poland. The research approach was based on Natural Language Processing techniques. We employed sentiment analysis algorithms, and on a basis of selected lexicons, we extracted fears and hopes that appear in migrants' narrations. We also identified major topics and associated them with specific sentiments. Pandemic induced several matters connected with e.g., the stability of employment, discrimination, relationships, family, and financial situation. These affairs are usually connected on the basis of a cause-and-effect relationship. In addition, while several topics were common for both male and female participants, some of them were specific for each group.

The Most Vulnerable Hispanic Immigrants in New York City: Structural Racism and Gendered Differences in COVID-19 Deaths.

This paper explores the structural and group-specific factors explaining the excess death rates experienced by the Hispanic population in New York City during the peak years of the coronavirus pandemic. Neighborhood-level analysis of Census data allows an exploration of the relation between Hispanic COVID-19 deaths and spatial concentration, conceived in this study as a proxy for structural racism. This analysis also provides a more detailed exploration of the role of gender in understanding the effects of spatial segregation among different Hispanic subgroups, as gender has emerged as a significant variable in explaining the structural and social effects of COVID-19. Our results show a positive correlation between COVID-19 death rates and the share of Hispanic neighborhood residents. However, for men, this correlation cannot be explained by the characteristics of the neighborhood, as it is for women. In sum, we find: (a) differences in mortality risks between Hispanic men and women; (b) that weathering effects increase mortality risks the longer Hispanic immigrant groups reside in the U.S.; (c) that Hispanic males experience greater contagion and mortality risks associated with the workplace; and (d) we find evidence corroborating the importance of access to health insurance and citizenship status in reducing mortality risks. The findings propose revisiting the Hispanic health paradox with the use of structural racism and gendered frameworks.

A Needs Assessment of Older Bangladeshi Immigrants in New York During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Though immigrants from Bangladesh are a fast-growing and under-resourced immigrant community in the United States, little has been studied about their overall health and social needs. Older immigrant adults from Bangladesh are at increased risk for adverse effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, as they have existing risk factors for isolation including language barriers and more recent immigration. This study examined measures of health and connectedness amongst 297 South Asian adults in New York City who were 60 years or older using a phone-based survey instrument. Surveys were conducted from August 2021 to April 2022. We found that immigrants from Bangladesh were more likely to report a higher effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial and food insecurity and faced significantly higher levels of loneliness than South Asian immigrants from other countries. Our findings suggest that older immigrants from Bangladesh disproportionally face social isolation compared to older immigrants from other South Asian countries and our study encourages further research and intervention for this immigrant subgroup.

Innovative Approaches to Improve COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Among Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants: Lessons Learned from a Newly Established National Resource Center.

Effective COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) among refugee, immigrant, and migrant (RIM) communities requires innovative approaches to address linguistic, cultural and community specific preferences. The National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (NRC-RIM) is a CDC-funded initiative to support state and local health departments with COVID-19 response among RIM communities, including CICT. This note from the field will describe NRC-RIM and initial outcomes and lessons learned, including the use of human-centered design to develop health messaging around COVID-19 CICT; training developed for case investigators, contact tracers, and other public health professionals working with RIM community members; and promising practices and other resources related to COVID-19 CICT among RIM communities that have been implemented by health departments, health systems, or community-based organizations.

Association between immigrant concentration and mental health service utilization in the United States over time: A geospatial big data analysis.

Immigrants (foreign-born United States [US] citizens) generally have lower utilization of mental health services compared with US-born counterparts, but extant studies have not investigated the disparities in mental health service utilization within immigrant population nationwide over time. Leveraging mobile phone-based visitation data, we estimated the average mental health utilization in contiguous US census tracts in 2019, 2020, and 2021 by employing two novel outcomes: mental health service visits and visit-to-need ratio (i.e., visits per depression diagnosis). We then investigated the tract-level association between immigration concentration and mental health service utilization outcomes using mixed-effects linear regression models that accounted for spatial lag effects, time effects, and covariates. This study reveals spatial and temporal disparities in mental health service visits and visit-to-need ratio among different levels of immigrant concentration across the US, both before and during the pandemic. Tracts with higher concentrations of Latin American immigrants showed significantly lower mental health service utilization visits and visit-to-need ratio, particularly in the US West. Tracts with Asian and European immigrant concentrations experienced a more significant decline in mental health service utilization visits and visit-to-need ratio from 2019 to 2020 than those with Latin American concentrations. Meanwhile, in 2021, tracts with Latin American concentrations had the least recovery in mental health service utilization visits. The study highlights the potential of geospatial big data for mental health research and informs public health interventions.

Telehealth for All? Assessing Remote Service Delivery for Latinx Immigrants.

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a widespread shift to remotely delivered health services. Telehealth has shown promise in making healthcare more accessible. Little research has looked at the effects of this change on access to healthcare for Latinx immigrants. This qualitative study explored the shift to remote services during the COVID-19 pandemic in a new immigrant destination. Authors interviewed 23 service providers to assess if telehealth increased access to healthcare for Latinx immigrants. Results showed that telehealth improved access to services overall. Still, barriers to care remained. Immigrants experienced (a) limited access to technology and low digital literacy, (b) lack of privacy during the provision of services, (c) inability to utilize certain digital platforms due to confidentiality regulations, and (d) decreased quality of services. Findings suggest that telehealth is a promising modality to decrease healthcare disparities, but providers need to thoughtfully address barriers unique to Latinx immigrants to ensure their full participation.

Preliminary Data on the Impacts of COVID-19 on Filipino Immigrants in Hawai'i.

Racial and ethnic minorities experience high rates of disease morbidity and mortality. Filipinos in Hawai'i have the second-highest coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and deaths. This exploratory study examined barriers to compliance with COVID-19 prevention practices for Filipino immigrants residing in O'ahu and Maui. Cross-sectional data were collected using mixed methods involving surveys and key informant interviews with Filipino community members. Survey responses (n=50) were collected identifying crucial factors to be addressed and preferences for receiving information related to COVID-19. Some Filipino customs and practices were a barrier to complying with COVID-19 prevention practices; nevertheless, cultural sensitivity was stressed for education messaging. In addition, family and community navigators should be equipped with the training and resources to disseminate COVID-19 information within their communities. Attitudinal, cultural, and linguistic barriers to promote health persist for Filipinos in Hawai'i. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these barriers due to the circulation of misinformation and lack of information among the Filipino communities of O'ahu and Maui regarding COVID-19 and local policies. Culturally appropriate support including providing tailored and linguistically appropriate COVID-19 information is recommended. Equipping or training a household member to help navigate COVID-19 policies as they change aligns with this community's emphasis on familial and social relationships.

Exploring Prenatal Care Quality and Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Pregnant Immigrants in Philadelphia Through the Lens of Community-Based Organizations.

Background: The peak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to decreased maternal and child health care engagement, especially among marginalized populations. Existing disparities in prenatal care access and quality faced by pregnant immigrant people are likely to be amplified by the pandemic. Materials and Methods: We conducted a study with direct service providers (DSPs) at community-based organizations (CBOs) serving pregnant immigrant families in the Philadelphia region. Semistructured interviews addressed barriers and facilitators to prenatal health care access and engagement among immigrant families both before and then after the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Additional questions elicited context about the demographics of service populations, organizational connectedness to health care providers, and pandemic-related operational changes. Results: Between June and November 2021, 10 interviews were conducted in English and Spanish with DSPs at 5 CBOs. Primary themes included diminished access and quality of care received due to decreased language accessibility, increased restrictions around support persons, shifts to telemedicine, and changes to appointment scheduling. Additional themes included heightened hesitancy engaging with services due to documentation status, confusion around legal rights, financial strain, and health insurance status. Interviewees provided suggestions for improving service access during and postpandemic for immigrant pregnant people, including implementation of culturally responsive group prenatal care, institutional policies to improve understanding of legal rights, and increased financial supports. Conclusions: Understanding emergent and exacerbated barriers to prenatal care access and quality during the COVID-19 pandemic provides context for how to improve health equity for immigrant pregnant people through public health and health care policies as the pandemic continues, and once it has subsided.

Access to SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests: are there barriers for the immigrants in Italy?

OBJECTIVES: to describe the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection in relation with the use of nasal swabs in the immigrant population in Italy, using data from the COVID-19 national surveillance system and to verify if a difference is present comparing natives and immigrant. DESIGN: descriptive study based on longitudinal health-administrative data. SETTING AND PAR TICIPAN TS: general population of six Italian Regions (Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio) covering about 55% of the resident population and 72% of foreigners' population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: regional rates of access to at least a nasal swab, separately by country of origin. RESULTS: across all the periods, a lower rate in the foreigners' group was observed, with the only exception of the period May-June 2021. Considering separately High Migratory Pressure Countries (HMPCs) and Highly Developed Countries (HDCs), a higher proportion of nasal swabs performed in people coming from HDC with respect to HMPCs and natives was noticed. This observation is consistent in males and females. CONCLUSIONS: during the first wave of the pandemic, Italians have had a higher proportion of nasal swabs compared to migrants across all Regions. This difference disappeared in the following periods, probably due to a major availability of diagnostic tests.

Social Work Practice with Asians and Pacific Islanders

This chapter focuses on the United Nations' classification of subregions: Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Islands. Asian and Pacific Islander (API) is used as an inclusive term to refer to the diverse people with origins in countries, states, territories, and jurisdictions in the identified Asia-Pacific geographic region. APIs include immigrants, refugees, United States (U.S.)-born citizens, naturalized citizens, undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, native communities in U.S. jurisdictions, non-immigrants. Racialization in the United States occurs along a continuum, which reflects longstanding systems of racial categorization and oppression. The COVID-19 pandemic presents sociopolitical challenges for APIs with the emergence of Sinophobia. Like other Asian American communities, the South Asian community has long been described as a model minority due to its members' increasing socioeconomic status and vast educational achievements in the United States. Heterogeneity and disparities among APIs are not fully understood due to the dearth of ethnic-specific studies. Social workers should be mindful of the diverse political, colonization, and immigration histories of API clients to fully consider the person in their environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Financial challenges and capacity among African refugees in the Southern USA: A study of socio-demographic differences

Refugees' successful integration into US society requires adaptation to economic, financial and social norms. Despite the importance of considering financial challenges (financial stress and financial anxiety) and financial capacity (financial literacy and financial self-efficacy) in reaching personal financial goals, literature examining the relationship between financial challenges and capacity-critical in refugee resettlement and integration-is sparse and fragmented. This study explored financial challenges and capacity amongst resettled African refugees (N = 130) in the southern USA using data from a larger community-based participatory research study that used a mixed-methods approach. We explored socio-demographic differences in financial stress, financial anxiety, financial literacy and financial self-efficacy across African refugee subpopulation groups. Our study highlights the importance of social work advocacy for data disaggregation, which helps establish the scope of the problem, unmask subpopulation differences and make vulnerable groups more visible to facilitate the development of tailored programmes and services to reach economic integration goals. We provide social work implications for data disaggregation in the current coronavirus context, which will leave long-term financial scars on refugee subpopulations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Anxiety in Children and Adolescents in the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

The aim of this study was;to define the anxiety and anxiety-related factors experienced by children/adolescents during the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale. Study data were collected between 15.04.2021 and 30.04.2021 by using keywords (child, children, adolescents, adolescents, mental health, anxiety, anxiety and stress) in Turkish and English. The data sources of this study are PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar t. As a result of the evaluations, a total of n=6185 articles were reached from all databases. After the evaluation of the full texts, the study was completed with n=31 articles. Eleven of the articles evaluated in this study were published in China. The anxiety prevalence of children and adolescents varies between 1.84-45.0%. As a result of the evaluated studies;It has been observed that women, those with chronic-psychiatric diseases, those who are older, separated from family members, migrant children and adolescents are more likely to experience anxiety. Some of the anxiety symptoms of children and adolescents are nervousness, irritability, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. In conclusion, anxiety levels and anxiety-related factors of children and adolescents living in various countries of the world during the Covid-19 pandemic were determined. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Bu çalışmada amaç;Covid-19 pandemisi sürecinde çocuk/ergenlerin deneyimlediği anksiyete ve anksiyeteyle ilişkili faktörleri küresel boyutta tanımlamaktır. Çalışma verileri 15.04.2021 ve 30.04.2021 tarihleri arasında, anahtar kelimeler (çocuk, çocuklar, ergen, ergenler, adolesanlar, akıl sağlığı, anksiyete, kaygı ve stres/child, children, adolescent, adolescents, adolescents, mental health, anxiety, anxiety and stress) Türkçe ve Íngilizce kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Bu çalışmanın veri kaynakları;PubMed, Web of Science, ve Google Akademiktir. Değerlendirmeler sonucunda tüm veri tabanlarından toplam n=6185 makaleye ulaşılmıştır. Tam metinlerin değerlendirmesinin ardından n=31 makale ile çalışma tamamlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada değerlendirilen makalelerin n=11'i Çin'de yayınlanmıştır. Çocuk ve ergenlerin anksiyete preveransları %1,84-45,0 arasında değişmektedir. Değerlendirilen çalışmalar sonucunda;kadınların, kronik-psikiyatrik hastalığı bulunanların, büyük yaşta olan, aile üyelerinden ayrı kalan, göçmen çocuk ve ergenlerin anksiyete yaşama ihtimallerinin yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Çocuk ve ergenlerin anksiyete semptomlarının bazıları, gerginlik, sinirlilik, endişe ve intihar düşüncesidir. Bu derleme çalışması sonucunda, Covid-19 pandemisi sürecinde dünyanın çeşitli ülkelerinde yaşayan, çocukergenlerin anksiyete düzeyleri ve anksiyete ile ilişkili faktörler belirlenmiştir. (Turkish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Current Approaches in Psychiatry / Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar is the property of Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Spatial Dimensions of Vulnerability: Meatpacking, Socioeconomics, and the Outbreak of COVID-19 in the High Plains of Texas

In May 2020, 2 months after COVID-19 arrived in the High Plains of Texas, meatpacking plant workers were discovered to be contracting the virus in large numbers. Working conditions in the plants-close spacing on the disassembly lines, cold temperatures, noise (shouting to be heard), etc.;along with congregant settings among the immigrant workers before and after work-were all implicated in the infections. Although much has been written on the vulnerabilities of meatpacking workers, little research has investigated the spatial spread of the virus. In this study we analyze COVID-19 case rates for May 15 (the first spike in daily case numbers), for the 41 counties of the region in relation to meat-packing influence, ethnicity, and socioeconomic structure of the counties. We find that meatpacking influence had the strongest relationship to COVID-19 rates across the counties;that the presence of Asian and African immigrants was also significant;and that rurality and isolation insulated more than half the counties from high virus rates. Further analysis, for later spikes in cases (July 1 and November 25), revealed a decline in meatpacking influence, a surge in COVID-19‘s infection of counties with large domestic minorities, and an amplification of low COVID-19 cases for rural, older, Anglo counties. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

"It was bad, very, very bad."The effect of COVID-19 on informal street vendors in the city centre of Cape Town

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is currently reverberating throughout the formal and informal sector of the South African economy - including informal street vendors. The informal sector and key activities such as informal street trading play an important role in the South African economy and the unique socio-economic context of South Africa. Despite optimistic theoretical beliefs that the informal sector will mitigate the adverse effects of external shocks (as with the COVID-19 pandemic) by absorbing the job losses that occur in the formal sector, previous studies suggest the opposite. The informal sector is often disproportionately affected by external economic and health shocks, especially in southern Africa (Bassier et al., 2020;International Labour Organisation (ILO), 2020c;Rogan & Skinner, 2018;Skinner & Rogan, 2019). Against this background, the aim of the study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and livelihoods of informal street traders. A qualitative research approach in the form of a descriptive case study was used to conduct an in-depth investigation of the effect of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of street vendors in Cape Town's city centre. A qualitative approach provides the opportunity to conduct a more comprehensive and in-depth analysis around the research question. The specific area in which the study was conducted was chosen to be close to transport infrastructure such as railway stations and bus stops and other public transport routes, as the literature suggests that these are the areas preferably frequented by street vendors. Before the fieldwork started, a pilot study was done to identify possible challenges and shortcomings in the interview guide. The necessary adjustments were made and the fieldwork took place between 6 and 8 May 2021. In-depth interviews, by means of a semi-structured interview guide, were conducted with 19 different street vendors, after which data saturation was achieved. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and describe "trends or themes" (Bryman & Bell, 2014:439). Guided by the protocol of Du Plooy-Cilliers et al. (2014:230) and Guest et al. (2012:7), the researchers revisited the data numerous times, simultaneously identifying the themes several times in order to refine the analysis. The researchers consistently adhered to the "Code of Conduct for Researchers" as stipulated by the North-West University. The empirical component of the study only began after the researchers had obtained ethical approval from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences' Research Ethics Committee. All relevant ethical principles were adhered to during the interviews with informal street vendors and COVID-19 protocol was strictly observed. The demographic and business characteristics of the respondents serve as a precursor and background to the rest of the thematic analysis on the impact of COVID-19 on street trading as a sector of the informal economy. Interviews were conducted with 19 informal enterprises. During two of the 19 interviews, there were two respondents from the same stall participating in the interview. This means that the researchers engaged with 21 informal street traders, representing 19 informal enterprises. Most respondents were men (12 out of 21) and nine had completed matric. Although four (20%) of the respondents possessed a tertiary qualification, seven (35%) respondents had not completed their schooling. The respondents, who were mostly foreigners from Cameroon, Somalia and Malawi, were mainly between 35 and 64 years old;the youngest retailer was 23 years old and the oldest retailer 74. At the time of the interviews, clothing and/or footwear were the main products sold, followed by fruit and vegetables, jewellery, accessories and handbags. Some product offerings (such as flowers and fruit and vegetables) mainly have a local customer base, while traders selling arts, crafts or curio's and some selling jewellery or accessories and bags are largely supported by tourists. The respondents'experience as informal street traders ranged from about one year to 56 years. In general, 14 (67%) of respondents had been working as informal traders for more than five years. A thematic analysis of the data showed that all the respondents' businesses closed for between one and five months in 2020 due to the national lockdown and associated regulations. Inventory losses, lack of income, depletion of their savings, layoffs of employees and significant food shortages were on-going themes. It was also not possible for the foreign respondents to make significant remittances to family in their countries of origin. Declining tourism numbers and local customers who lost their jobs are a constant threat to the livelihoods of informal street vendors. Furthermore, most of their local clients work from home and avoid public spaces to comply with social distancing regulations. In addition, several respondents said that tourists had had a positive impact on their profit margin because tourists bought more expensive products compared to the local customers. Most respondents said that their average monthly profit since the initial Level 5 lockdown in 2020 was about half of the average monthly profit the enterprise could generate before COVID-19. In addition, there were three businesses that could show only a third of the profits they had enjoyed before COVID-19, with another two businesses even reporting less than a third of their average profit prior to COVID-19 - one vendor's profit was about 20-30% less than before COVID-19. More specifically, three of the businesses made an average monthly profit of between R6 000 and R10 000 before COVID-19 and two of the businesses made an average daily profit of between R250 and R300. In the last year since the pandemic, however, three of the businesses generated an average monthly profit of between R2 000 and R5 000 and several businesses generated an average daily profit of between R100 and R200. Street vendors use various strategies, such as good customer service, efforts to obtain the best possible location, the acquisition of fresh stock, and the use of social media and electronic payment instruments in an attempt to deal with the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite their best efforts, several respondents had no choice but to reduce their employees' working hours and/or remuneration. The challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presents to informal street vendors in Cape Town's city centre are therefore an on-going daily reality. Continuous state support and follow-up studies with the same group of respondents to examine the impact over the medium and longer term are necessary. An important example of this is action research with respondents on the impact of the existing assistance measures on their lives and living conditions. These research results may help to develop action plans that will enable the city, province and country to deal with future exogenous shocks in a manner that would ensure some mitigation of the adverse effects of similar shocks on the structurally vulnerable sections of the society and the economy.

Are We Really Going to Get out of COVID-19 Together? Secured Legal Status and Trust Among Refugees and Migrants

Building up on pre-existing vulnerabilities and social exclusions, refugees and migrants are disproportionately suffering from the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Insecure legal status is an additional stressor that may accentuate social cleavages and ultimately impair their trust in host society and institutions. Based on a diverse sample of refugees and migrants in Belgium (N = 355), the present study investigates direct and indirect effects of legal status-measured as the type of residence permit held by participants -on social and political trust during the COVID-19 outbreak. Secured legal status was positively associated with social and political trust directly, and indirectly via a serial mediation composed by two cumulative stages. First, participants with a more secured legal status experienced less material difficulties to cope with the pandemic (i.e., first material stage). Second, participant who experienced less material difficulties identified more with the host society (i.e., second symbolic stage). In turn, reduced material difficulties and increased identification with the host society were both positively associated with social and political trust. Our findings advocate for securing legal status of refugees and migrants to help societies cope cohesively with the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.