Europe’s essential workers: Migration and pandemic politics in Central and Eastern Europe during COVID‐19

Abstract

In early 2020, governments in Eastern Europe responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with the introduction of restrictive measures, national lockdowns, and border closures. State responses in March and April suggested policy convergence across the region, with the prioritization of the recommendations from public health experts over economic activity and the freedom of movement. In early fall, after a second spike in the number of COVID-19 infections across Europe, policy strategies revealed

Review of COVID-19 epidemiology and public health response in Europe in 2020

“…On the contrary, Eastern European countries swiftly reached SI > 40; Czech Republic (9 days), Bulgaria (5 days), Poland (8 days), and Slovak Republic (5 days) that helped in containing the virus transmission initially. Czech Republic and Slovak Republic introduced lockdowns before they had recorded any deaths 29 and made it mandatory for people to wear masks outside the home since beginning. 28 Slovak Republic achieved early and effective quarantine measures and Slovak citizens behaved more responsibly.…”

Public policy responses to COVID‐19 in Europe

“…Aside from the serious public health and social protection challenges the pandemic poses, it is clear that the introduction of emergency measures at any time poses a danger of democratic backsliding and of the prospect of arbitrary and authoritarian political action, especially in some of Europe's more fragile democracies (see Adam, 2020;Shehaj, 2020). Separately, the onset of COVID-19 has underscored the central role of intra-EU migration and on the importance of seasonal workers especially to sustain many key industries including agriculture and food production (Paul, 2020).…”

“…Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries could not frame COVID‐19 in this way because European integration and free‐movement migration blur the line between insiders and outsiders in those countries. With a focus on the case of Romania, and with reference to Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Paul (2020) examines the conditions and coalitions that shaped policy outcomes and argues that migration systems played a double role in policy change: as structures for policy diffusion and as venues for migrants' agency. Governments learned from one another's experiences, but diffusion occurred unevenly according to a country's position within migratory systems.…”

Pandemic Management Systems and Migration

“…Migrant workers are in a vulnerable position due to the health and job impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. Several studies have investigated the vulnerability of migrant workers to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic (Borjas and Cassidy, 2020;Fasani and Mazza, 2020;Gelatt, 2020;Paul, 2020). Inadequate conditions under which some of them live and work make them particularly susceptible to various infections, including the new coronavirus.…”