COVID‐19, state (in)visibility and structural violence in low‐ and middle‐income countries

Abstract

The socioeconomic impact of COVID‐19 on adolescents and youth in lower‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) who have migrated for work, are among the urban poor, or have been forcibly displaced is not well understood. To address this knowledge gap, this article draws on in‐depth qualitative interviews undertaken between April and July 2020 with 249 adolescent girls and boys and 24 community key informants in Bangladesh and Ethiopia. These two countries have divergent social protection systems and thus provide a useful comparative lens to understand state provisioning for the most disadvantaged, including vulnerable young people, in crisis contexts. Despite rapid implementation of restrictions to halt viral spread, the mobilisation of social protection in response to the pandemic's socioeconomic effects has lagged. Using a lens of structural violence, findings underscore that socially marginalised young people are the most disadvantaged by state failures to deliver essential services or protection. There has also been insufficient support from humanitarian and development actors in responding to the challenges of the pandemic. The article concludes that identifying and addressing how structural inequalities shape access to and inclusion in social protection mechanisms can contribute to more effectively targeted measures to support the most disadvantaged, especially during crises.

We returned home empty‐handed: COVID‐19, care, and contested citizenship of Naga migrant workers in northeast India

“…In this paper, we demonstrate how these unequal impacts are linked with structural violence-the latter manifested through inequality of power, resource distribution, and exposure to different life opportunities that are in turn linked with contested citizenship status. Such dynamics are of course present in other places around the globe (see, for example, Mutambara, 2022;Phillimore et al, 2022;Pincock et al, 2022). Analysing the consequences of COVID-19 through the experiences of migrant workers and other marginalised groups then highlights the fallacy of claims that the pandemic was 'a great equaliser', with systemic inequalities resulting in unequal ramifications (Kabel and Phillipson, 2021).…”