Social capital and community organizing in community-based COVID-19 management in two resettlement sites in the Philippines

The study yields insights on the community-based actions for pandemic management in two urban resettlement sites in the Philippines. Studies that interrogate the origins of community-based actions in government-built resettlement sites during the pandemic have been scant. We investigated in two communities how social capital, community organizing, and collective action intersected in wielding the community leaders' combined agency in building their own COVID-19 management system. The data were collected through phone interviews with community leaders and residents during the lockdown period. In a context of low local government support, the communities proved their ability to build their pandemic management system. Nonetheless, one community was much quicker in setting up the crisis management system and was even able to adjust it to the shifting quarantine policies and corresponding needs of the residents. The notable differences between the two communities can be attributed to their different community organizing experience and different stocks of social capital. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reseverd.

A Longitudinal Study Examining the Effects of COVID-19 on Refugees Four Years Postresettlement in the United States.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many refugee communities faced intensified economic and social challenges. This longitudinal study began three years prior to the COVID pandemic and examined the effects of COVID on refugee outcomes in the United States including employment, health insurance, safety, and discrimination. The study also examined participant perspectives on COVID-related challenges. Participants included 42 refugees who resettled approximately three years prior to the onset of the pandemic. Data were collected at six months, 12 months, two years, three years, and four years postarrival, with the pandemic beginning between years 3 and 4. Linear growth models examined how the pandemic impacted participant outcomes over time. Descriptive analyses examined perspectives regarding pandemic challenges. Results indicated that during the pandemic, employment and safety significantly decreased. Participant concerns regarding the pandemic centered on health, economic challenges, and isolation. Attention to refugee outcomes during the COVID pandemic highlight the need for social work practitioners to promote equitable access to information and social supports, particularly during times of uncertainty.

Addressing immediate public health needs as part of Afghan evacuees' resettlement to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Since the removal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the United States welcomed Afghan evacuees through Operation Allies Welcome. Using cell phone accessibility, the CDC Foundation worked with public-private partners to protect evacuees from the spread of COVID-19 and provide accessibility to resources. STUDY DESIGN: This was a mixed methods study. METHODS: The CDC Foundation activated its Emergency Response Fund to accelerate public health components of Operation Allies Welcome, including testing, vaccination, and COVID-19 mitigation and prevention. The CDC Foundation began the provision of cell phones to evacuees to ensure access to public health and resettlement resources. RESULTS: The provision of cell phones provided connections between individuals and access to public health resources. Cell phones provided means to supplement in-person health education sessions, capture and store medical records, maintain official resettlement documents, and assist in registration for state-administered benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Phones provided necessary connectivity to friends and family for displaced Afghan evacuees and higher accessibility to public health and resettlement resources. As many evacuees did not have access to US-based phone services upon entry, provision of cell phones and plans for a fixed amount of service time provided a helpful start in resettlement while also being a mechanism to easily share resources. Such connectivity solutions helped to minimize disparities among Afghan evacuees seeking asylum in the United States. Provision of cell phones by public health or governmental agencies can help to provide equitable resources to evacuees entering the United States for social connection, healthcare resources, and resources to assist in the process of resettlement. Further research is needed to understand the generalizability of these findings to other displaced populations.

Transnational caring in times of COVID-19: The experiences of visible minority immigrant carer-employees.

Globalization and immigration policies between Canada and immigrant-sending nations have heightened transnational caregiving. The research objective is to explore the experiences of visible minority immigrant transnational carer-employees (VMI TCEs) before and during the pandemic. In this study, participants reside in the mid-sized city of London, Ontario and engage in paid employment or volunteering while providing unpaid care to family members and/or friends abroad. Interviews and arts-based methodology were used to collect data from 29 VMI TCEs from 10 countries. Intersectionality theory informed thematic analysis and three themes emerged: (1) The nuances of providing transnational care, (2) The impact of geographic dislocation on care and wellbeing, and (3) Caregiving during COVID-19. Findings highlight the fluidity of transnational caregiving, in that participants both shape and are impacted by time-space dimensions. Study results may be used to inform culturally sensitive adaptions to the existing standard for organizations to be more inclusive of and accommodating to carer-employees. Findings can also inform the implementation or improvement of programs and services offered by the government, immigration resettlement agencies, employers and other stakeholders working with people who may share similar experiences to VMI TCEs. The creation of accessible and appropriate resources for this group of people will better support them in resettling outside of major urban cities in Ontario and other provinces across Canada.

Experiences of wellbeing and resilience among refugee mothers and families in Calgary during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of participation in HIPPY, a home visiting program.

In order to provide meaningful and effective support to refugees in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during post-pandemic recovery efforts, it is critical to explore the experiences of refugee mothers and families during the pandemic, and to identify sources of resilience that can be leveraged to promote individual and household wellbeing. From November 2020 to June 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with mothers from refugee backgrounds (n = 28) who resettled in Calgary, Alberta and are currently participating in the Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program. Interviews were conducted virtually using Microsoft Teams; we sought to better understand the pathways and barriers to wellbeing experienced by refugee mothers during the pandemic. The results indicate that the refugee mothers and families in our study experienced widespread disruptions to education and employment and increased motherhood burden, contributing to diminished wellbeing. Mental health was further impacted by heightened levels of worry, stress and social isolation, as well as intense fear pertaining to the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Some mothers reported experiencing barriers to accessing healthcare services and reliable health information during the pandemic. In the face of these challenges, the mothers demonstrated great resilience and identified tangible individual, household and extra-household factors and resources that supported them in coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, our findings suggest that participation in HIPPY played a significant role in fostering the resilience of the participating mothers and families during the pandemic, speaking to the potential of home visiting intervention models in mitigating household hardship during current and future public health crises.

The Role of Digital Skills in Refugee Integration: A State-of-the-Art Review

Two concurrent 21st-century phenomena—the nearly unprecedented number of forced migrants and the near-ubiquity of information and communications technology—have given rise to increased scholarship in “digital migration studies.” One area of investigation in this emergent interdisciplinary field is the role of digital skills in refugee integration. Given the accelerated global reliance on technology resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the author conducted a state-of-the-art literature review to identify emerging issues and highlight research needs in this area. A search of 10 databases yielded 39 studies spanning the major resettlement regions (North America, Western Europe, Oceania) and including refugees from across the globe. The inclusion criteria were studies focused on refugees’ practical use of digital technology in integration, published from January 2020-April 2021. Exclusion criteria were studies on refugees in transit or protracted displacement, digital connectivity and accessibility, use of digital technology by humanitarian actors, software development, analyses of digital representations of refugees, public attitudes toward refugees as expressed in digital media, and literature reviews. Ndofor-Tah et al.’s (2019) Refugee Integration Framework was used to organize and synthesize the findings. The studies demonstrated how digital skills affect all domains of integration. Additionally, the studies confirm that many refugees in resettlement have limited digital skills for necessary integration tasks, such as navigating websites and assessing the credibility of online information. Limitations of this state-of-the-art review include its cross-sectional nature, having only one reviewer, and only published literature accessible online through public websites or subscription databases. An important emerging issue for future research is assessing, teaching, and learning digital skills among this population. The study’s contributions to the knowledge base and theory, and its implications for information science scholars and practitioners and those in allied disciplines within digital migration studies, are discussed © 2021. International Journal of Information, Diversity and Inclusion.All Rights Reserved.

Refugee-Led Organizations' Crisis Response During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Scholarship on disaster response and recovery has focused on local communities as crucial in developing and implementing timely, effective, and sustainable supports. Drawing from interviews with refugee leaders conducted during the spring and summer of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines crisis response activities of refugee-led grassroots groups, specifically within Bhutanese and Congolese refugee communities in a midwestern metropolitan area in the US resettlement context. Empirical findings illustrate how refugee-led groups provided case management, outreach, programming, and advocacy efforts to respond to the pandemic. These findings align with literature about community-based and strengths-based approaches to addressing challenges stemming from the pandemic. They also point to local embeddedness and flexibility as organizational characteristics that may have helped facilitate crisis response, thereby warranting reconsideration and re-envisioning of the role of refugee-led grassroots groups in crisis response.Alternate :La recherche sur l'intervention et le rétablissement en cas de catastrophe s'est concentrée sur les communautés locales comme ayant un rôle crucial dans le développement et la mise en œuvre de soutiens opportuns, efficaces et durables. S'appuyant sur des entretiens avec des leaders réfugiés effectués au printemps et à l'été 2020 au début de la pandémie, cette étude examine les activités d'intervention en situation de crise menées par des groupes de base dirigés par des réfugiés, particulièrement au sein des communautés de réfugiés bhoutanais et congolais d'une région métropolitaine du Midwest dans le contexte de réinstallation des États-Unis. Les résultats empiriques illustrent comment les groupes dirigés par des réfugiés ont assuré la gestion de cas, les activités de rayonnement, la programmation ainsi que les efforts de plaidoyer en réponse à la pandémie. Ces résultats convergent avec la littérature sur une démarche de proximité et une approche axée sur les forces comme réponse aux défis issus de la pandémie. Ils soulignent également que l'intégration locale et la flexibilité sont des caractéristiques organisationnelles qui ont pu faciliter la réponse à la crise, cautionnant ainsi de reconsidérer et de ré-envisager le rôle des groupes de base dirigés par des réfugiés dans l'intervention en situation de crise.

Balancing Resettlement, Protection, and Rapport on the Front Line: Delivering the Resettlement Assistance Program During COVID-19

Drawing on my experience as a general counsellor in the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP), I explore the impact COVID-19 has had on the initial resettlement services provided for government-assisted refugees (GARs) and on frontline workers in the field. Balancing the requirement to enforce protection measures and the need to establish rapport was one of the major challenges the pandemic posed to GAR support practices. To unpack the particularities of this challenge, I give the example of two resettlement services GARs receive upon arrival: namely, resettlement orientations and children's education. I argue that using an intersectional lens demonstrates the pandemic's unequal effects and how they exacerbate the vulnerabilities of GARs embarking on their resettlement journey. I hold that developing COVID-19 responses informed by intersectionality opens a space for services and policies that mitigate these effects.Alternate :Puisant dans mon expérience comme conseillère générale au sein du Programme d'aide à la réinstallation (PAR), j'explore l'impact qu'a eu la COVID-19 sur les services de réinstallation initiaux offerts aux réfugiés parrainés par le gouvernement (RPG) et sur les travailleurs de première ligne dans ce domaine. La recherche d'un équilibre entre l'exigence d'appliquer les mesures de protection et le besoin d'établir un rapport était l'un des défis importants posés par la pandémie aux pratiques de soutien du PAR. Afin d'éclaircir les particularités de ce défi, je donne l'exemple de deux services de réinstallation que les RPGs reçoivent à leur arrivée, soit les services d'orientation à la réinstallation et l'éducation des enfants. Je soutiens que l'emploi d'une approche intersectionnelle démontre les effets inégaux de la pandémie et la manière dont ils exacerbent les vulnérabilités des RPGs qui débutent leur parcours de réinstallation. Je considère que le développement de réponses à la COVID-19 fondées sur l'intersectionnalité ouvre la voie à des services et des politiques qui atténuent ces effets.

The role of healthcare supply chain management in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic: hot off the press

Purpose>The study aims to examine the role of health-care supply chain management during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-section of 42 selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.Design/methodology/approach>The study used cross-sectional robust least square regression for parameter estimates.Findings>The results confirmed the N-shaped relationship between the health-care logistics performance index (HLPI) and COVID-19 cases. It implies that initially HLPI increases along with an increase in COVID-19 cases. Later down, it decreases COVID-19 cases by providing continued access to medical devices and personal protective equipment. Again, it increases due to resuming economic activities across countries.Practical implications>The continuing health-care supply chain is crucial to minimize COVID-19 cases. The international support from the developed world in providing health-care equipment, debt resettlement and resolving regional conflicts is deemed desirable to escape the SSA countries from the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/value>The importance of the health-care supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic is evident in the forecasting estimates, which shows that from August 2021 to April 2022, increasing the health-care supply chain at their third-degree level would reduce coronavirus registered cases. The results conclude that SSA countries required more efforts to contain coronavirus cases by thrice increasing their health-care logistics supply chain.

Mental Health Screening Approaches for Resettling Refugees and Asylum Seekers: A Scoping Review.

Refugees and asylum seekers often face delayed mental health diagnoses, treatment, and care. COVID-19 has exacerbated these issues. Delays in diagnosis and care can reduce the impact of resettlement services and may lead to poor long-term outcomes. This scoping review aims to characterize studies that report on mental health screening for resettling refugees and asylum seekers pre-departure and post-arrival to a resettlement state. We systematically searched six bibliographic databases for articles published between 1995 and 2020 and conducted a grey literature search. We included publications that evaluated early mental health screening approaches for refugees of all ages. Our search identified 25,862 citations and 70 met the full eligibility criteria. We included 45 publications that described mental health screening programs, 25 screening tool validation studies, and we characterized 85 mental health screening tools. Two grey literature reports described pre-departure mental health screening. Among the included publications, three reported on two programs for women, 11 reported on programs for children and adolescents, and four reported on approaches for survivors of torture. Programs most frequently screened for overall mental health, PTSD, and depression. Important considerations that emerged from the literature include cultural and psychological safety to prevent re-traumatization and digital tools to offer more private and accessible self-assessments.

Barriers to employment for refugees seeking work in the Australian construction industry: an exploratory study

Purpose>In Australia, as in many other countries, refugees are over-represented in the ranks of the unemployed, under-employed and precariously employed and often become frustrated in their attempts to secure work. Despite the construction industry being a major potential source of employment for refugees, there has been a surprising lack of research into their experiences of securing work in the industry. Addressing this gap and also the general lack of voice for refugees in construction research, the aim of this paper is to explore the barriers refugees face in securing employment in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approach>This paper reports a survey of refugees who have worked or attempted to seek work in the Australian construction industry.Findings>Results show that the main barriers to securing employment in construction are: lack of local work experience;employer discrimination;employer failure to recognise previous qualifications, skills and experience and employers not understanding the challenges they face. Government employment agencies and systems are also perceived to be of limited value and overly complex, in contrast to the activities of not-for-profit support agencies.Research limitations/implications>While the research is limited to Australia, the findings contribute an important and missing refugee dimension to the emerging body of research on construction social procurement. They also contribute unique sector-specific insights into the broader debate about refugee resettlement and employment. Further research is needed in other national contexts.Practical implications>Recommendations are made to address the barriers to employment identified including: initiatives to provide refugees with work experience in the industry;education to break-down negative stereotypes of refugees among employers;greater support for not-for-profits supporting refugees and reform of government and employment agency systems and procedures.Social implications>By enhancing understanding of the barriers to employment for refugees in construction and proposing solutions to reduce those barriers, this research contributes new insights into a growing global challenge of how we better integrate growing numbers of refugees into harmonious and prosperous societies.Originality/value>The findings are important in facilitating the smoother integration of refugees into society. Beyond the moral imperative, there are significant social, cultural and economic benefits which successful refugee integration brings to host countries and industries like construction which in many countries are now being required to employ refugees in their workforce as a condition of public sector contracts.

“We are praying from home”: reflections on the pandemic from resettled Rohingya refugees

Purpose: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt acutely by resettled refugee communities around the world. Adjusting to life in a new country typically presents a host of challenges that must be met by newly resettled refugees, and these challenges were no doubt compounded by the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of resettled Rohingyan refugees living in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a grounded theory approach to derive meaning from qualitative interviews conducted with 21 Rohingyan refugees. This study embodied an emic design by involving the community in the development, conduction and interpretation of the data, rooting itself in the recognition of Rohingyan expertise and understanding. Findings: The data yielded three major themes: financial instability, disruptions in access to health care and mental health distress. In addition, two minor themes were established: disruptions to everyday life and impacts on religious practices. Originality/value: Little is known about the resettlement experiences of the Rohingyan people, who are arguably some of the most marginalized among refugees. With no written language shared among Rohingyans, communication barriers exacerbate an already challenging resettlement trajectory. The insights provided through this study are key to understanding the unique needs and strengths of Rohingyan refugees and will be valuable in shaping interventions to support their successful resettlement. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Primary Caregiver in Yazidi Refugee Families in Canada: A Feminist Refugee Epistemological Analysis

Existing discourse on refugee resettlement in the West is rife with imperialist and neoliberal allusions. Materially, this discourse assumes refugees as passive recipients of resettlement programs in the host country, thereby denying them their subjectivities. Given the amplification of all social and economic inequities during the pandemic, our paper explores how Canada's response to the pandemic visa-vis refugees impacted the everyday of Yazidis in Calgary - a recently arrived refugee group who survived the most horrific genocidal atrocities of our times. Based on interviews with Yazidi families in Calgary and with resettlement staff we unpack Canada's paternalistic response towards refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show how resettlement provisions and social isolation along with pre-migration histories have furthered the conditions of social, economic, and affective inequities for Yazidis. We also show how Yazidi women who were most impacted by the genocide and the subsequent pandemic find ways of asserting their personhood and engage in healing through a land-based resettlement initiative. Adopting a feminist refugee epistemology and a southern moral imaginary as our discursive lenses, we highlight the need to dismantle the existing paternalistic structures and re(orient) resettlement practices and praxis to a social justice framework centering the voices of refugee women and families in their resettlement process.

United States Grapples with Aftermath of Withdrawal from Afghanistan

16 In a statement confirming the civilian deaths, Austin apologized and promised that the U.S. military would “endeavor to learn from” the error.17 Austin called for a review of the initial Defense Department investigation to determine whether it “considered all available context and information, the degree to which accountability measures need to be taken and at what level, and the degree to which strike authorities, procedures and processes need to be altered in the future.” 21 In remarks to the New York Times, Said also noted that military officials erred in believing they had located an ISIS-K safe house from which attacks were to be launched—information that led to the strike.22 Commentators have criticized the Defense Department for failing to provide more transparency about the investigation and resulting report, as well as accountability for the errors that led to the strike.23 U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl met with the U.S. charity that employed Ahmadi, and according to a Pentagon spokesman, “‘Dr. Kahl noted that the strike was a tragic mistake and that Mr. Zemari Ahmadi and others who were killed were innocent victims, who bore no blame and were not affiliated with ISIS-K or threats to U.S. forces.’” 27 Upon taking office, the Biden administration launched a review of use of force policies, including drone strikes, and reportedly paused such strikes outside conventional battlefields without presidential approval.28 Press reports suggest that although the review is not yet complete, the administration is considering a return to the Obama-era policy of “centralized interagency vetting of proposed strikes,” while maintaining the Trump-era approach of giving greater flexibility to commanders with respect to countries, such as Somalia and Afghanistan, where strikes are more routine.29 President Biden has indicated that the United States intends to continue “over-the-horizon” strikes as part of its continued counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.30 As investigations into the withdrawal from Afghanistan continue, U.S. officials face the ongoing challenge of resettling evacuated Afghans. Many left on military and charter flights to transit hubs in third countries, including Qatar, Germany, and Italy.34 In these countries, evacuees have been housed on U.S. military bases, where they undergo “biometric and biographic security screenings” in addition to COVID-19 and other health screenings.35 Press reports indicate that several dozen have been red-flagged for “apparent records of violent crime or links to Islamist militants,” and were transferred to a NATO base in Kosovo to await further decisions.36 Afghans who receive security and health clearances can travel to the United States.37 Private airlines have donated hundreds of millions of frequent flier miles to provide evacuees with free tickets to the United States.38 Most evacuees have landed at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, with some then going to live with family and many others transported to domestic military bases.39 Although private companies like Airbnb committed to provide temporary housing for 20,000 evacuees,40 tens of thousands have waited at U.S. bases for weeks or months as resettlement agencies struggle to place them in more permanent housing.41 The White House has estimated that a total of 95,000 Afghans will relocate to the United States.42 To obtain safe passage out of Afghanistan for those who wish to leave and to facilitate the reopening of the Kabul airport, the United States has maintained “regular contact” with the Taliban.43 The State Department hopes to resume regular evacuation flights before the end of 2021,44 but in the meantime, evacuees have mainly departed on charter flights, while a small subset have escaped via overland routes.45 According to the State Department, “Since August 31, the United States has directly assisted 479 American Citizens and 450 lawful permanent residents [in addition to their immediate family members] to depart Afghanistan and relocate to the United States.”

THE EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

[...]on June 8th, 2020, more than 65,000 travel restrictions were issued for 220 countries around the world. According to statistics, as of April 4th, 2020, thirty-four countries with substantial resettlement of refugees have reported local transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Under these conditions, the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) for protection against COVID-19 such as washing hands with soap and water, avoiding crowded spaces, wearing masks in public and social isolation when people show symptoms of illness6 are impossible to comply with inside refugee camps that are overcrowded, becoming real "outbreaks of infection". According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, migrants make up 24% of all doctors and 16% of auxiliary staff, such as care workers.

Working towards Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed Care in the Refugee Resettlement Process: Qualitative Inquiry with Refugee-Serving Professionals in the United States.

Trauma-informed care (TIC) approaches have gained popularity in various contexts of human services over the past decades. However, relatively little has been explored about how it is applicable and built into services for refugee populations in resettlement programs. This study explores the current status of the application of TIC in refugee-serving agencies and identifies perceived and experienced challenges and opportunities for culturally responsive TIC in the United States. As designed as part of the evaluation of state-wide refugee health promotion programs, this study conducted individual interviews with 78 refugee service providers from five resettlement sites. Despite the burgeoning interest and attempt to embrace TIC, our findings show that there is clear inconsistency and inexperience in TIC adaptation in resettlement programs. This study highlights that TIC that is culturally responsive and relevant to refugee trauma and acculturation experiences is a vital way to address the chasms between refugee-specific programs and mainstream services including mental health care systems. This study also discusses community resources and opportunities to bridge the deep divide and substantial gaps between mental health services and refugee resettlement services and to address comprehensive needs around mental health and wellness in the refugee community.

Impacts of COVID-19 on Refugee Service Provision and Community Support: A Rapid Assessment during the Pandemic.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has significant impacts on refugee populations and created social, economic as well as public health crises that led to multipronged challenges and barriers to resettlement services and community support. This study aims to explore the impacts of the pandemic on refugee service provision from the standpoint of refugee-serving professionals, refugee community leaders, and volunteers. Using rapid evaluation and appraisal methods, we conducted individual and focus group interviews with 42 key stakeholders in refugee services, followed by a brief online survey with 69 service providers. A thematic analysis revealed how preexisting are conflated with emergent barriers during the pandemic and how such cumulative adversities experienced by the refugee community have widened the gaps in social services and healthcare as well as social support within the refugee community. This study proposes several implications for future research and policy in social work with refugee populations during the post-COVID time.

Clinicians as advocates amid refugee resettlement agency closures.

As ongoing war and violence forcibly displace people worldwide, resettlement remains a critical response to the unprecedented global refugee crisis. In recent years, however, the USA (US) has diminished admissions, forcing agencies to shutter offices and resettlement programs across the nation-posing a silent threat to the refugee resettlement system. We provide historical context of refugee resettlement, discuss challenges, and offer recommendations for healthcare providers to become more effective advocates for refugee health in the USA. The need is urgent for healthcare providers and institutions-particularly in regions of high resettlement-to advocate for expanding and assuring sustainable capacity to care for refugees. Key elements include promotion of trauma-informed care, integration of social services in primary care settings, partnership with community-based organizations to promote continuation of care, advocacy for resources and services, and opposition to policies detrimental to the health of refugees and immigrants.

Impact of the Inflow Population From Outbreak Areas on the COVID-19 Epidemic in Yunnan Province and the Recommended Control Measures: A Preliminary Study.

Background: COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic in 2020 and poses challenges regarding the prevention and control capabilities of countries. A large number of inbound travelers from other regions could lead to a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in the local regions. Globally, as a result of the imbalance in the control of the epidemic, all countries are facing the risk of a renewed COVID-19 outbreak brought about by travelers from epidemic areas. Therefore, studies on a proper management of the inbound travelers are urgent. Methods: We collected a total of 4,733,414 inbound travelers and 174 COVID-19 diagnosed patients in Yunnan province from 21 January 2020 to 20 February 2020. Data on place of origin, travel history, age, and gender, as well as whether they had suspected clinical manifestations for inbound travelers in Yunnan were collected. The impact of inbound travelers on the local epidemic was analyzed with a collinear statistical analysis and the effect of the control measures on the epidemic was evaluated with a sophisticated modeling approach. Results: Of the 174 COVID-19 patients, 60.9% were not from Yunnan, and 76.4% had a history of travel in Hubei. The amount of new daily cases in Yunnan was significant correlated with the number of inbound travelers from Hubei and suspected cases among them. Using Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model analysis, we found that the prevention and control measures dropped the local R0 down to 1.07 in Yunnan province. Conclusions: Our preliminary analysis showed that the proper management of inbound travelers from outbreak areas has a significantly positive effect on the prevention and control of the virus. In the process of resettlement, some effective measures taken by Yunnan province may provide an important reference for preventing the renewed COVID-19 outbreak in other regions.