Comprensión, confianza y ética en las entrevistas con personas migrantes

Qualitative social research on the lives of migrants in Chile involves investigating the social suffering that arises from the "migratory condition" that is produced. The progressive recrudescence of migration policies both at national and international level since the end of the 20th century has further deepened the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, generating a complex scenario for research in this area for two reasons: the online modality assumed by the interviewing exercise, and the increase of frictions in the relationship between Chileans and migrants. In this text we ask ourselves how to investigate someone who suffers, for which we stop, on the one hand, in the interview as an exercise that should be vigilant of the structural conditions in which it occurs and that can produce symbolic violence, while it should tend to the understanding of the social from the singularity of a life that the interview attends. This implies considering that the ethics of research runs through the very exercise of, in this case, the interview, so that it is not an external constraint to the method, but an integral part of its deployment. Informed consents play a fundamental role in the achievement of the above, however, they often turn out to be standardized protocols that fail to protect or inform the participating subjects, given their technical language and the little reflection on the social relationship they establish, with the result that Informed Consent ends up being installed in the distance between the researcher and the research participant. This is why it is necessary to stop and consider what is understood by ethics, in order to make the interview a fair institution that is built on the recognition of the other as part of the research exercise. Thus, ethics in qualitative social research must be recognized as both situated and, therefore, as reflexive and non-standardized. Thus, we conclude by arguing that in qualitative social research, understanding and ethics are imbricated in a single exercise.

Public Attitudes to Immigration in the Aftermath of COVID-19: Little Change in Policy Preferences, Big Drops in Issue Salience: IMR

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected public attitudes toward immigration? Long-term evidence in Europe and the United States suggests attitudes to immigration are relatively stable and, in some cases, becoming more favorable with high volatility instead of the perceived importance of the issue. However, theoretically a global pandemic could exacerbate people's fears of outsiders or that migration may contribute to the disease. By contrast, attitudes could remain stable if their distal drivers prove to be robust enough to withstand the shock of COVID-19. We draw from Eurobarometer data from 2014 to 2021 across 28 European countries, weekly national survey data during the outbreak from the United States and individual panel data from the United Kingdom and Germany to find little systematic change in immigration preferences and no country-level correlation between the observed changes and the outbreak's severity. Instead, the perceived importance of immigration has consistently and significantly decreased. These findings suggest that, if COVID-19 is to have an impact on attitudes to migration, it is likely to emerge via longer-term means, such as early-life socialization and value change, rather than reactions to the immediate pandemic shock.

Exposure to negative foreign COVID-19 news predicts lower support for immigration policy in China.

We present a framework for studying the spillover effect of negative foreign COVID-19 news on attitudes towards immigration. Our framework proposes that exposure to negative COVID-19 news from foreign countries can activate negative associations with foreigners, reduce positive attitudes towards them, and increase perceived threat, ultimately leading to decreased support for immigration. We conducted three studies to test this framework. Study 1 found that exposure to negative COVID-19 news about a foreign country increased negative valence associations with that country. Study 2 showed that exposure to more negative COVID-19 news about foreign countries was associated with lower acceptance of immigration policies in real life. Study 3 replicated the spillover effect of negative news exposure using a scenario manipulation. The effects of negative news exposure on immigration policy acceptance in both Studies 2 and 3 were mediated by changes in foreigner attitudes and intergroup threat. Our results demonstrate the important spillover effect of negative foreign COVID-19 news exposure on immigration attitudes and highlight the association perspective as a foundation for understanding attitude changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Revisiting the policy implications of COVID-19, asylum seekers, and migrants on the Mexico–U.S. border: Creating (and maintaining) states of exception in the Trump and Biden administrations

Public policy choices continue to bring dramatic changes to migration practices in the era of the coronavirus in the United States. In this article, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated the creation and maintenance of states of exception while continuing to destabilize practices at the Mexico–U.S. border through the politics of fear. Specifically, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), Zero Tolerance Policy (ZTP), COVID-19 CAPIO, Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACA), and Title 42 used an arcane section of U.S. law to immediately expel asylum seekers and refugees. We show that these policies highlight the formation and maintenance of states of exception consistent with the work of Agamben. We further discuss how the politics of fear can reinforce hegemonic narratives targeting asylum seekers while shaping political agendas that lean toward a specific brand of nationalism using public health as a context. The U.S. government under the Trump administration—and the Biden administration to a lesser, yet continuous, extent—constructed these policies aimed primarily at refugees and asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico thereby violating laws and international treaty obligations. Related Articles: Duman, Yoav H. 2014. "Reducing the Fog? Immigrant Regularization and the State.” Politics & Policy 42(2): 187–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12065. Garrett, Terence Michael. 2020. "The Security Apparatus, Federal Magistrate Courts, and Detention Centers as Simulacra: The Effects of Trump's Zero Tolerance Policy on Migrants and Refugees in the Rio Grande Valley.” Politics & Policy 48(2): 372–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12348. Maggio, James. 2007. "The Presidential Rhetoric of Terror: The (Re)Creation of Reality Immediately after 9/11.” Politics & Policy 35(4): 819–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2007.00085.x. © 2023 Policy Studies Organization.

Multilevel governance, community and emergency management during the pandemic: migrants in Japan

PurposeBuilding on perspectives from the study of multilevel governance, migrants' inclusion and emergency management, this article asks how differences across national regulations for foreign residents, work eligibility and access to national emergency supports intersected with local approaches in responding to migrants.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines national policy adjustments and parallel subnational governance early in the pandemic for three groups of foreign residents: international students, technical interns and co-ethnics with long-term visas, primarily Brazilians and Peruvians. It uses Japanese-language documents to trace national policy responses. To grasp subnational governance, the article analyzes coverage in six Japanese regional newspapers from northern, central and western Japan, for the period of April 1 to October 1, 2020.FindingsNational policies obstructed or enabled migrants' treatment as members of the local community but did not dictate this membership, which varied according to migrant group. Migrants' relationship to the community affected available supports.Originality/valueThe article brings together perspectives on multilevel governance, emergency management and migrants' inclusion. It exposes how different migrant groups' ties to the local community affected access to supports.

No Calm Before the Storm: Low-Income Latina Immigrant and Citizen Mothers Before and After COVID-19

Government pandemic provisions occurred alongside a safety net that excludes or dissuades Latina mothers from participation. These families are also disproportionately exposed to punitive immigration policies and rhetoric that may shape their views on such provisions and, in turn, influence their post-pandemic well-being. To understand these complexities, we draw on interviews before and after COVID-19 with thirty-eight Latina immigrant and citizen mothers, most of whom are undocumented (N = 29). We find that pre-pandemic distrust of public institutions and the safety net was common, increased after COVID-19, and negatively affected undocumented respondents' post-pandemic circumstances relative to that of citizen mothers. Findings suggest that safety net expansion on its own will not offset pandemic effects for these families without addressing exclusion from public benefits and alienation from and distrust of government.

Best and Brightest? The Impact of Student Visa Restrictiveness on Who Attends College in the US

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, student F-1 visa applicants faced a 27 percent refusal rate that varies by time and region. Recent immigration policies have created uncertainty in whether international students will receive their visas. Using data on the universe of SAT takers between 2004 and 2015 matched with college enrollment records, we examine how the anticipated F-1 visa restrictiveness influences the enrollment of international students in the US. Using an instrumental variables approach, we find that a higher anticipated F-1 student visa refusal rate decreases the number of international SAT takers, decreases the probability of sending SAT scores to US colleges, and decreases international student enrollment in the US. The decreases are larger among international students with higher measured academic achievement. We also document academic achievement of international students and show that over 40 percent of high-scoring international SAT takers do not pursue US college education.

2023 ACHE Hudgens Award Recipient: Baljeet S. Sangha, FACHE, COO, San Francisco Health Network

The integrated, safety-net healthcare system for the City and County of San Francisco includes the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, San Francisco's only Level 1 trauma center, and the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. [...]even when folks can't get out of their home, we at the San Francisco Health Network know we can still reach out to them with access to substance abuse and mental health support as well as other critical preventive screenings. Dr. Ford: A few years ago, San Francisco enacted a law directing firms that employ 20 or more employees, most notably food service workers, to contribute a minimum amount to health benefits per employee hour. [...]many of them are doing two or three jobs to support their families, so it is impossible for them to get healthcare during periods that may be "normal” for the rest of us.

Editors' Introduction Neoliberalism in Higher Education: Practices, Policies, and Issues

While the working and middle classes have faced the challenges brought about by job layoffs resulting from corporate mergers and the lack of an economic support system to provide a survivable quality of life, the top one percent has enjoyed the benefits of increasing monetary gains from tax cuts and stock market investments. Reduced state funding and the infusion of marketplace principles and practices have resulted in the treatment of students as a revenue stream for raising tuition, which, in turn, increases student dependence on loans benefiting primarily Wall Street private lenders. [...]higher education has become the victim of a hostile takeover by neoliberal principles that utilize higher education as a laboratory for economic practices and redesign work roles to monetize the value of higher education. [...]they argue that for the last fifty years, neoliberalism has penetrated the academy and intercollegiate athletics and has been speeding toward a separation of the university and athletics by prioritizing business and profit interests as well as private and corporate sponsorships, and by increasing reliance on governance by the NCAA rather than universities (including academic standards and compliance).

Public Health Practice and Health Equity for Vulnerable Workers: A Public Health of Consequence, May 2023

Structured vulnerabilities that threaten the health of meat- and poultry-packing workers are driven by a complex and complicated host of economic, occupational, social, and health care access-related factors. Recognition of these complexities is a first step. More challenging, yet critical to sustaining a commitment to social justice for these frontline workers, are public health practice initiatives rooted in health equity that work toward eliminating health disparities.In this issue of AJPH, Porter et al. (p. 500) describe implementation of a public health practice initiative aimed at reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and increasing vaccine uptake among poultry industry workers. This editorial seeks to contextualize this initiative as one investment in a larger constellation of investments that are needed to provide resources and services equally to all members of our society.

Mixed-Immigration Status Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: To understand how mixed-immigration status families-families with a mixture of people with and without documentation-in the United States (U.S.) fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study highlights how health inequities were exacerbated during the height of the pandemic due to the implementation of anti-immigration policies such as Public Charge Rule, which stipulates that receiving public benefits is grounds for inadmissibility for immigrants seeking naturalization. Methods: In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted over Zoom with 14 members of mixed-status families between February and April 2021. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Atlas.ti. Using grounded theory, we assessed the level of awareness about Public Charge Rule and the health challenges these families faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Themes that emerged included financial problems, job insecurity, housing insecurity, food insecurity, mental health problems, distrust of government and health officials, and a fear of Public Charge Rule. We present a framework for understanding health inequities for mixed-status families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion: Public Charge Rule caused fear and confusion for mixed-status families during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in individuals not receiving public benefits they urgently needed. This created heightened mental health problems due to job, housing, and food insecurity. Health Equity Implications: We discuss how trust between mixed-status families and the government needs foundational rebuilding. In addition to streamlining the process for these families to apply for legal status, it is important to protect and support mixed-status families through programs and policies during public health emergencies.

The neo‐nationalist ascendency: further thoughts on class, value and the return of the repressed

March 2020. On the borders of EU Europe, with the Covid pandemic threatening human lives, sociality and welfare everywhere, Syrian refugees on the ‘Balkan Route', bombed out of Idlib, are being beaten in the forests with wooden clubs by Romanian border guards before they are thrown back onto Serbian territory for further humiliations.1 Romanian return migrants, fleeing the Italian and Spanish Corona lockdowns en masse, are being told over the social networks that they should never have come back, contagious as they are imagined to be and a danger for a woefully underfunded public health system for which they have not paid taxes. Further South, the Mediterranean is once again a heavily policed cemetery for migrants and refugees from the civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa – collateral damage of Western imperial delirium and hubris – as Greece is being hailed by the European President for being the ‘shield' behind which Europe can feel safe from the supposedly associated criminality. Viktor Orbàn, meanwhile, has secured his corrupt autocracy in Hungary for another indefinite stretch of years after the parliament gave him powers to singlehandedly fight the Covid pandemic and its long-run economic after-effects in the name of the Magyars and in the face of never subsiding threats from the outside to the nation. Orbàn will also continue, even more powerfully so now, to fight immigrants, gypsies, gays, feminists, cultural Marxists, NGOs, George Soros, population decline, the EU, and everyone else who might be in his way. Critique from the EU is in Budapest rejected as being ‘motivated by politics'. Vladimir Putin, too, has just been asked by the Russian parliament to stay on indefinitely in his regal position, so as to safeguard Russia's uncertain national future. Erdogan of Turkey is sure to be inspired and will not renege from his ongoing and unprecedentedly brutal crackdown on domestic dissent and ‘traitors to the nation' while his armies are in Syria and Libya. Turkish prisons will continue to overflow.All these, and manifold other events not mentioned here, are part of processes in the European East that have been continuous (as in ‘continuous history versus discontinuous history') for at least a decade, all with a surprisingly steadfast direction. They appear to be diverse, occasioned by ethnographically deeply variegated and therefore apparently contingent events. Anthropologists, professionally spellbound by local fieldwork, are easily swayed to describe them in their singularities. But that singular appearance is misleading. These and similar events are systemically rooted, interlinked, produced by an uneven bundle of global, scaled, social and historical forces (as in ‘field of forces') that cascade into and become incorporated within a variegated and therefore differentiating terrain of national political theatres and human relationships that produce the paradox of singularly surprising outcomes with uncanny family resemblances. These forces can be summarily described as the gradual unfolding of the collapse of a global regime of embedded and multi-scalar solidarity arrangements anchored in national Fordism, developmentalism and the Cold War, into an uncertain interregnum of neoliberalised Darwinian competition and rivalry on all scales, with a powerfully rising China lurking in the background. Neo-nationalism appears from within this unfolding field of forces as a contradictory bind that seeks to enact and/or re-enact, domestically and abroad, hierarchy and deservingness, including its necessary flip side, humiliation. That is one aspect of the argument I have been trying to make since the end of the nineties (for example Kalb 2000, 2002, 2004), when such forces began to stir in the sites that I was working on and living in: The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Hungary and Poland.That universalising argument is easily corroborated by events in the west of the continent, which paint a similarly cohesive though phenomenologically variegated picture.2 Marine Le Pen nd Matteo Salvini are still credibly threatening to democratically overthrow liberal globalist governments in France and Italy on behalf of the ‘people' and ‘the nation', and against the elites, the EU, immigrants, the left and finance capital. Dutch politicians, in the face of the global coronavirus calamity, still believe one cannot send money to Italy and the European South lest it will be spent on ‘alcohol and women'. Anonymous comments in the Dutch press on less brutal newspaper articles often echo the tone of the one that claimed that Southern countries were mere ‘dilapidated sheds … and even with our money they will never do the necessary repair work' (NRC 30 March 2020, comments on ‘Europese solidariteit is juist ook in het Nederlandse belang'). Until its impressive policy turn-around in April/May 2020 in the face of the Covid pandemic and the fast-escalating EU fragmentation amid a world of hostile and nationalist great powers, the German government did not disagree. It was Angela Merkel herself who set up the Dutch as the leaders of a newly conceived right-wing ‘frugal' flank in the EU under the historical banner of the Hanseatic League to face down the federalist and redistributionist South. That Hanseatic banner suggested that penny-counting, competitive mercantilism and austerity, and its practical corollary, an imposed hierarchy of ‘merit' and ‘successfulness', must hang eternally over Europe. Britain, meanwhile, has valiantly elected to leave the EU in order to ‘take back control' on behalf of what Boris Johnson imagines as the ‘brilliant British nation' (The Economist 30 January 2020). It would like to refuse any further labour migrants from the mainland, and seek a future in the global Anglosphere, beefed up by a revitalised British Commonwealth where hopefully, when it comes to ceremony, not juridical equality but imperial nostalgia and deference will rule (see Campanella and Dassu 2019).

An intersectional and social determinants of health framework for understanding Latinx psychological distress in 2020: Disentangling the effects of immigration policy and practices, the Trump Administration, and COVID-19-specific factors

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted U.S. communities of color, such as the Latino/x population. The pandemic coincides with other major contemporary structural factors affecting Latinxs, including the effects of U.S. immigration policies and President Trump's xenophobic rhetoric and priorities. Yet, the independent and simultaneous implications of the larger sociopolitical climate and specific COVID-19 concerns for Latinx mental health remain less clear. The present study uses an intersectional and social determinants of health framework to examine these relationships. Multivariable regression models were estimated with three waves of population-based panel data from the Pew American Trends Study (collected between 2019 and 2020) with Latinx adults (n = 1,132). We simultaneously examined how worries regarding deportation, respondents' citizenship and legal status, perceptions regarding the Trump Administration, anti-Hispanic discrimination, and pandemic-related concerns predicted variation in Latinx self-reported psychological distress, after adjusting for other important covariates. We also conducted analyses separately by gender. The results indicated that worrying about a family member or a friend being deported, perceiving higher anti-Hispanic discrimination, and viewing coronavirus as a threat to respondents' personal health and finances were significantly associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Stratified analyses revealed that gender filters the ways that some of these stressors affect the mental health of Latinas, such as perceived threats about deportation, compared to Latinos. Taken together, this work demonstrates the diverse social determinants shaping Latinx mental health in intersectional ways early in the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Spanish) La pandemia de COVID-19 ha afectado de manera desproporcionada en EE. UU. a las comunidades de color, tales como la poblacion latina. La pandemia coincide con otros importantes factores estructurales contemporaneos que afectan a los latinos, incluidos los efectos de las politicas de inmigracion de EE. UU. y las prioridades y la retorica xenofoba del expresidente Trump. Sin embargo, siguen siendo menos claras las consecuencias independientes y simultaneas del clima sociopolitico mas amplio y las inquietudes especificas a la COVID-19 respecto a la salud mental de los latinos. El presente estudio utiliza los determinantes sociales transversales del marco de salud para examinar estas relaciones. Se estimaron los modelos de regresion entre variables multiples con datos basados en tres olas poblacionales del estudio Pew American Trends Study (reunidos entre 2019 y 2020) con adultos latinos (n = 1,132). De manera simultanea, se examino la manera en que las preocupaciones respecto a la deportacion, el estado legal y de ciudadania de los encuestados, las percepciones relacionadas con el gobierno de Trump, las discriminacion contra los hispanos y las inquietudes relacionadas con la pandemia predijeron una variacion en como los latinos informaron sobre su angustia psicologica, despues de adaptarse a otras covariables. Tambien se realizaron por separado los analisis segun el genero. Los resultados indicaron que preocuparse por un familiar o amigo que fuera deportado, percibir una mayor discriminacion contra los hispanos y ver al coronavirus como una amenaza a la salud y la economia personal de los encuestados estaban relacionados de manera significativa a niveles mas elevados de angustia psicologica. Los analisis estratificados revelaron que el genero filtra las maneras en que algunos de estos factores estresantes, tales como la percepcion de amenazas de deportacion, afectan la salud mental de las mujeres latinas, en comparacion con la de los hombres latinos. En su conjunto, este trabajo demuestra las variadas determinantes sociales de la salud que dieron forma a la salud mental de los latinos de maneras trasversales a principios de la pandemia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement This study finds that worries about deportation, perceptions of anti-Hispanic discrimination, and having higher levels of COVID-19-related financial and health concerns were significantly associated with increased psychological distress among Latinxs in Spring 2020, net of other covariates. Gender-stratified analyses reveal that worries about deportation, legal and citizenship status, and pandemic-related effects on personal lives and health increased distress among Latinas but not Latinos. This highlights the array of gendered impacts and social determinants of health affecting Latinx psychological well-being during the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Family Matters: Navigating the Intentional Precarity of Racialized Migrant and Refugee Workers in Canadian Meatpacking

Au Canada, l'industrie de conditionnement de la viande dépend fortement d'une main-d'œuvre composée d'immigrés et d'immigrants racialisés, dont beaucoup sont d'anciens réfugiés. Au printemps 2020, l'industrie a connu des épidémies dévastatrices de COVID-19 qui ont entraîné des centaines d'infections, de nombreux décès et la fermeture d'usines dans le sud de l'Alberta. Sur la base des résultats d'un partenariat de recherche communauté-université, les intersections entre le statut d'immigration et les conditions de travail auxquelles sont confrontés les travailleurs immigrés-réfugiés sont analysées dans l'industrie de conditionnement de la viande en Alberta. À partir de 225 réponses à un sondage et de 17 entrevues qualitatives avec des travailleurs immigrants, immigrés et réfugiés, le concept de " précarité intentionnelle " est avancé pour explorer les stratégies utilisées par l'industrie pour maintenir une main-d'œuvre docile. Cet article apporte trois contributions. Premièrement, nous présentons des comptes-rendus originaux des épidémies de COVID-19 de 2020 dans l'industrie canadienne de conditionnement de la viande du point de vue des travailleurs immigrés et migrants ;deuxièmement, nous démontrons que les travailleurs immigrés et migrants ne sont pas seulement des travailleurs autonomes, mais plutôt des personnes intégrées dans des réseaux de soins et de parenté à la fois locaux et transnationaux ;et troisièmement, nous dévoilons la relation tendue entre les travailleurs immigrés et migrants, leurs familles et les environnements de travail sales, difficiles, dangereux (3D) et, pendant le COVID-19, mortels. Nous postulons que les familles agissent comme un tampon contre le travail en 3D en offrant protection et assistance en temps de crise, comme les épidémies de COVID-19 dans les abattoirs. Pourtant, l'obligation de subvenir aux besoins de la famille est souvent la raison principale pour laquelle les travailleurs acceptent un emploi dans l'industrie de la viande.Alternate :In Canada, the meatpacking industry relies heavily on a workforce comprised of racialized migrants and immigrants, many of whom are former refugees. In the spring of 2020, the industry saw devastating COVID-19 outbreaks leading to hundreds of infections, numerous fatalities and plant closures in Southern Alberta. Based on findings from a community-university research partnership, the intersections of immigration status and the conditions of work faced by im/migrant-refugee workers are analyzed in the Alberta meatpacking industry. Drawing on 225 survey responses and 17 qualitative interviews with im/migrant and refugee workers, the concept of 'intentional precarity' is advanced to explore the strategies that the industry uses to maintain a docile workforce. This paper makes three contributions. First, we present original accounts of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreaks in Canadian meatpacking from the perspective of im/migrant workers;second, we demonstrate that im/migrant workers are not just autonomous labourers, but rather people embedded in caring and kin networks that are both local and transnational;and third, we unpack the fraught relationship between im/migrant workers, their families and the dirty, difficult, dangerous (3D) - and, during COVID-19, deadly - work environments. We argue that families act as a buffer against 3D work by offering protection and assistance in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 outbreaks in slaughterhouses. Yet, obligations to support family are also often the primary reason for workers to take jobs in meatpacking in the first place.

THE US‑MEXICAN BORDER AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICY

There have been several periods in American history that are referred to as turbulent times. They were characterized by a wide range of changes that happened to respond to issues that brought anxiety, threat, discontent, or trouble. Donald Trump's presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic significantly influenced American immigration policy and the lives of immigrants. The present article pays special attention to the Mexican-American border. This area plays a crucial role in migration studies focusing on the Americas for at least two reasons: international relations between Mexico (and the Latin American region) and the United States, and homeland security issues related to irregular and regular migrant flows. This study aims to determine what changes have been implemented in border policy, investigate why they occurred, and finally, discuss their results. The article analyzes the most challenging issues characteristic of the situation of unaccompanied minor migrants, the concept of Trump's wall or the 'remain in Mexico' program. The US-Mexican border studies have played a crucial role in research dedicated to American immigration policy since its inception. Today, it is also an area of concern and special attention is paid to this region due to the dynamics of processes taking place at the border. The work presented here discusses and highlights the most turbulent issues that echoed not only in the United States but also worldwide.

Socio-ecological value chain resilience and cleaning workers

Examining the ways that industries survived the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us a great deal about the resilience of value chains, the ways value chain dynamics shape worker resilience, and the measures states can adopt to support both. In this paper we critically examine the thriving body of theory known broadly as supply chain resilience and explore a branch that embraces socio-ecological perspectives. We first develop a theoretical model that takes what we perceive to be the most fruitful elements of these literatures for industrial relations scholarship and bring it together with approaches tangential to industrial relations concerned with value chain actor and worker agency and resilience. We then apply this model in an analysis of the Australian commercial cleaning sector during the pandemic. Finally, we assess federal and state measures to assist and "buffer” employment and the economy in Australia, including JobKeeper and JobSeeker. We find that these government measures, combined with earlier restructuring of the labour market and restrictive immigration policies, provided the institutional scaffolding for the failure of the cleaning industry during the pandemic, exactly when cleaning became an essential service for the resilience of the whole of society.

Social Policy, COVID-19 and Impoverished Migrants: Challenges and Prospects in Locked Down India

As countries shore up existing safeguards to address the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, India faces a humanitarian disaster of unprecedented proportions. Ninety per cent of the Indian workforce is employed in the unorganised sector;uncounted millions work in urban areas at great distances from rural homes. When the Government of India (GOI) announced the sudden ‘lockdown' in March to contain the spread of the pandemic, migrant informal workers were mired in a survival crisis, through income loss, hunger, destitution and persecution from authorities policing containment and fearful communities maintaining ‘social distance'. In this context, the article analyses how poverty, informality and inequality are accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of ‘locked down' migrant workers. The article examines the nature and scope of existing social policy, designed under changing political regimes and a fluctuating economic climate, to protect this vulnerable group and mitigate dislocation, discrimination and destitution at this moment and in future.

Moral economy and deservingness in immigration policies. The case of regularisations in Italy

This paper has two purposes. The first is theoretical: to revise use of the concept of moral economy in migration studies, and the related concept of deservingness. I will identify different versions and meanings, showing their significant contribution to the understanding of migration issues, but discussing their lack of consideration of a particular aspect: the conflict between competing moral economies. The second and related purpose will be to apply the concept of moral economy to an analysis of the public debate on the recent measure, related to the COVID-19 pandemic, enacted to regularise unauthorised immigrants in Italy (May–August 2020). The measure, almost unique in Europe and in the Global North, has involved only workers, and workers employed in two sectors: agriculture and domestic/care services. This decision can be seen as a choice in terms of moral economy: some sectors and some immigrant workers have deserved more consideration than other workers. The empirical material is constituted by declarations and statements by social and political actors who took part in the debate, using moral-economic arguments to support their position. I will review this debate through the lens of competing moral economies and different notions of deservingness. In the conclusion I argue that in migration policies, relevant moral and political values are involved: human rights and national sovereignty, the right to mobility and citizens' rights, the right of asylum and social cohesion. I wish for a more subtle use of the concept of moral economy to feed a better discussion of these crucial topics. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Ethnicities is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. 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.)

Intra‐company transfers: The government/corporate interface in the United Kingdom

This paper explores the role of intra‐company transfers in the United Kingdom government's labour immigration policy over the last quarter century. It demonstrates their role in determining the number of non‐European Economic Area foreigners working in the country and examines the way policy, both generally and specifically, has developed. It presents new statistical data and uses that evidence to examine the interplay between the government and multinational corporations in the determination of a significant element of foreign labour immigration. Its findings demonstrate that intra‐company transfers have consistently played a major role in the management of UK labour immigration with a small number of occupations and countries of origin characterizing the system at various times. It concludes that the system has operated through a symbiotic relationship between government and major companies to the mutual benefit of both. However, ‘Brexit' and the COVID‐19 pandemic are leading to reassessment of political and corporate objectives.