COVID-19 has the potential of changing the way in which European governments and societies regard migrants, as evidenced by the initiatives adopted by some Member States on regularizing migrants’ work status and granting them access to healthcare. However, the economic impact of the pandemic may soon put migrants in the spot of xenophobic parties and movements. The pandemic will thus place the EU in a situation to choose between different policy options: migrants are not only essential workers but also entrepreneurs by nature and will contribute to the recovery from the crisis but the recession will also be a test for integration policies, and the EU must find ways to work with local and regional stakeholders in this challenge. Political agendas are likely to keep Member States divided and as political attention turns to the recession border externalisation will remain in the EU policy mix options.
Listen to the debate with:
Abdoulaye Fall: has a PhD in Demography from the UAB Centre for Demographic Studies. He is Hello Spain Director and collaborates in ACAF as Program Manager combining this responsibility with savings groups creation, training and assessment with tracking and organization of training activities in the field of micro finance and community organization
Laura Batalla: is Ashoka's Hello Europe’s Policy Representative in Brussels, a position that she combines with an advisory role to a Member of the European Parliament on foreign policy.
Ruth Ferrero: Adjunct Profesor of Political Science and Senior Research Fellow, Complutense Institute of International Studies (ICEI)
Moderation: Carlos Carnicero Urabayen.
Technical production and edition: Franco Delle Donne.
An OpenEUpodcast produced by Agenda Pública.
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