The asylum system and the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Lisbon: Existing disparities, structural problems and new insights
Abstract
Existing vulnerabilities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present case study from the city of Lisbon explores the existing disparities and structural problems within the asylum system based on analysis of multimedia data. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes findings suggesting the importance of different forms of solidarity and activism both newly found and existing, such as the meaningful and substantive participation of refugees and civil society, engaged in the front line to deal with the crisis. This study provides insights for transformative change of asylum policies, stressing a more holistic and systematic perspective and fostering the involvement of refugees and asylum seekers in government planning and policy processes to build back better policies.
References
Agência Lusa (2020). Câmara de Loures nega responsabilidades na instalação dos cinco refugiados no concelho. O Púlico. https://www.publico.pt/2020/05/18/local/noticia/camara-loures-nega-responsabilidades- instalacao-cinco-refugiados-concelho-1917064
Alio, M., Alrihawi, S., Milner, J., Noor, A., Wazefadost, N., & Zigashane, P. (2020). By refugees, for refugees: Refugee leadership during COVID-19, and beyond. International Journal of Refugee Law, 32(2), 370–373. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeaa021
Asanin, J., & Wilson, K. (2008). “I spent nine years looking for a doctor”: Exploring access to health care among immigrants in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Social science & medicine, 66(6), 1271–1283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.043
Azevedo, D., & Honrado, J. (2020, May 15). Covid-19: Migrantes provenientes de hostel de Lisboa estão na Base Aérea da Ota 2020. Nova Berdade. https://www.radioalenquer.pt/covid-19-migrantes-provenientes-de-hostel-de-lisboa-estao-na-base-aerea-da-ota/
Barua, A., & Karia, R. H. (2020). Challenges faced by Rohingya refugees in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Annals of Global Health, 86(1), 129. http://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3052
Basok, T., & George, G. (2020). Migrant workers face further social isolation and mental health challenges during coronavirus pandemic. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/migrant-workers-face-further-social-isolation-and-mental-health-challenges-during-coronavirus-pandemic-134324
Betts, A., Easton-Calabria, E., & Pincock, K. (2020). Refugee-led responses in the fight against COVID-19: Building lasting participatory models. Forced Migration Review, 64, 73–76. https://www.fmreview.org/issue64/betts-eastoncalabria-pincock
Bowen, S. (2001). Language barriers in access to health care. Health Canada.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Bukuluki, P., Mwenyango, H., Katongole, S. P., Sidhva, D., & Palattiyil, G. (2020). The socio- economic and psychosocial impact of Covid-19 pandemic on urban refugees in Uganda. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2(1), 100045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100045
Campbell, R. M., Klei, A. G., Hodges, B. D., Fisman, D., & Kitto, S. (2014). A comparison of health access between permanent residents, undocumented immigrants and refugee claimants in Toronto, Canada. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 16(1), 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9740-1.
Castleberry, A., & Nolen, A. (2018). Thematic analysis of qualitative research data: Is it as easy as it sounds?.Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 10(6), 807–815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2018.03.019
Cerbara, L., Ciancimino, G., Crescimbene, M., La Longa, F., Parsi, M. R., Tintori, A, & Palomba, R. (2020). A nation-wide survey on emotional and psychological impacts of COVID-19 social distancing. European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, 24, 7155–63. https://doi/org/ 10.26355/eurrev_202006_21711
Claudino, H. (2020). 58 refugiados que testaram negativo para a covid-19 deixam a Base Aérea da Ota. Tvi24. https://tvi24.iol.pt/sociedade/alenquer/58-refugiados-que- testaram-negativo-para-a-covid-19-deixam-base-aerea-da-ota
Costa, P. M., & Sousa, L. (2017). “You are welcome in Portugal”: Conviction and convenience in framing today’s Portuguese politics on European burden sharing of refugees. Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration, 6(2), 49–53.
Dempster, H., Ginn, T., Graham, J., Ble, M. G., Jayasinghe, D., & Shorey, B. (2020). Locked down and left behind: The impact of COVID-19 on refugees’ economic inclusion. Center for Global Development, Refugees International, and International Rescue Committee. https://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2020/7/6/locked-down-and-left-behind-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-refugees-economic-inclusion.
De Oliveira, C. R. (2020). Entrada, Acolhimento e Integração de Requerentes e Beneficiários de Proteção Internacional em Portugal: Relatório do Asilo 2020. Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Observatório das Migrações, ACM, IP.
Devakumar, D., Shannon, G., Bhopal, S. S., & Abubakar, I. (2020). Racism and discrimination in COVID-19 responses. The Lancet, 395(10231), 1194. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30792-3
Dodds, S., & Hess, A. C. (2020). Adapting research methodology during COVID-19: Lessons for transformative service research. Journal of Service Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-05- 2020-0153
Esposito, F., & Kellezi, B. (2020). Border violence, migrant resistance, and acts of solidarity at individual, collective, and community levels: Critical reflections from a Community Psychology perspective. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1285/i24212113v6i1p1
Esposito, F., Ornelas, J., Briozzo, E., & Arcidiacono, C. (2019). Ecology of sites of confinement: Everyday life in a detention center for illegalized non-citizens. American Journal of Community Psychology, 63(1–2), 190–207. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12313
Esposito, F., Ornelas, J., Scirocchi, S., & Arcidiacono, C. (2019). Voices from the inside: Lived experiences of women confined in a detention center. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 44(2), 403–431. https://doi.org/10.1086/699344
Frith, H., & Gleeson, K. (2004) Clothing and embodiment: Men managing body image and appearance. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 5(1), 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.5.1.40
Griffiths, M. B. (2014). Out of time: The temporal uncertainties of refused asylum seekers and immigration detainees. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40(12), 1991–2009. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2014.907737
Grove, N. J., & Zwi, A. B. (2006). Our health and theirs: Forced migration, othering, and public health. Social Science & Medicine, 62(8), 1931–1942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.08.061
Guadagno, L. (2020). Migrants and the COVID-19 pandemic: An initial analysis. International Organization for Migration: Migrant Research Series, 60, 34–38. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lorenzo_Guadagno/publication/340844735_Migrants_and_the_COVID-19_pandemic_An_initial_analysis/links/5ea04e1892851c010577ecb0/Migrants-and-the-COVID-19-pandemic-An-initial-analysis.pdf
Hankivsky, O., Grace, D., Hunting, G., Giesbrecht, M., Fridkin, A., Rudrum, S., Ferlatte, O., & Clark, N. (2014). An intersectionality-based policy analysis framework: Critical reflections on a methodology for advancing equity. International Journal for Equity in Health, 13, 119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-014-0119-x
Hebebrand, J., Anagnostopoulos, D., Eliez, S., Linse, H., Pejovic-Milovancevic, M., & Klasen, H. (2016). A first assessment of the needs of young refugees arriving in Europe: What mental health professionals need to know. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 25(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0807-0.
Ianni Segatto, C. (2019). Settlement and integration policies in federal contexts: The case of refugees in Canada and Brazil. Journal of Refugee Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/fez065
Júnior, J. G., de Sales, J. P., Moreira, M. M., Pinheiro, W. R., Lima, C. K. T., & Neto, M. L. R. (2020). A crisis within the crisis: The mental health situation of refugees in the world during the 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Psychiatry Research, 113000. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113000
Kallio, K. P., Häkli, J., & Pascucci, E. (2019). Refugeeness as political subjectivity: Experiencing the humanitarian border. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(7), 1258–1276. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654418820915
Kapilashrami, A., & Hankivsky, O. (2018). Intersectionality and why it matters to global health. The Lancet, 391(10140), 2589–2591. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31431-4
Kpatue Kweh, A. (presenter). (2020). Refúgio em Tempo de Emergência; Que Resposta? Forum Refúgio. YouTube.
Korac, M. (2003). Integration and how we facilitate it: A comparative study of the settlement experiences of refugees in Italy and the Netherlands. Sociology, 37(1), 51–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038503037001387
Kousha, K., Thelwall, M., & Abdoli, M. (2012). The role of online videos in research communication: A content analysis of You Tube videos cited in academic publications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(9), 1710–1727. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22717
Lozet, F., & Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). Counting urban refugees during COVID-19. Forced Migration Review, (64), 79–80. https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/issue64/lozet-eastoncalabria.pdf
Mangrio, E., Paul-Satyaseela, M., & Strange, M. (2020). Refugees in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic—The need for a new perspective on health and integration. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 605. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.574334
McPherson, M. (2010). ‘I integrate, therefore I am’: Contesting the normalizing discourse of integrationism through conversations with refugee women. Journal of Refugee Studies, 23(4), 546–570. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feq040
Morris, M. D., Popper, S. T., Rodwell, T. C., Brodine, S. K., & Brouwer, K. C. (2009). Healthcare barriers of refugees post-resettlement. Journal of Community Health, 34(6), 529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-009-9175-3
Norredam, M., Mygind, A., & Krasnik, A. (2006). Access to health care for asylum seekers in the European Union—A comparative study of country policies. The European Journal of Public Health, 16(3), 285–289. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cki191.
Norwegian Refugee Council. (2020). 10 things you should know about coronavirus and refugees. https://www.nrc.no/news/2020/march/10-things-you-should-know-about-coronavirus-and-refugees/
Orcutt, M., Patel, P., Burns, R., Hiam, L., Aldridge, R., Devakumar, D., Kumar, B., Spiegel, P., & Abubakar, I. (2020). Global call to action for inclusion of migrants and refugees in the COVID-19 response. The Lancet, 395(10235), 1482–1483. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30971-5
Quinn, S. C., & Kumar, S. (2014). Health inequalities and infectious disease epidemics: A challenge for global health security. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 12(5), 263–273. https://doi.org/10.1089/bsp.2014.0032
Pereirinha, T., Ferreira M. L., Correia G., & Agência Lusa (2020, April 19). Hotel evacuado em Lisboa 169 estrageiros já foram transferidos para ase aérea da Ota. O Observador. https://observador.pt/2020/04/19/hospede-infetado-leva-a-evacuacao-de-hostel-em-lisboa-200-pessoas-foram-retiradas-para-a-mesquita-de-lisboa/
Pincock, K., Betts, A., & Easton-Calabria, E. (2020). The global governed? Refugees as providers of protection and assistance. Cambridge University Press.
Rebelo, D., Abdullah, A., & Hussein, M. (2020). Solidarity with refugees in Portugal: A collaborative research. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.1285/i24212113v6i1p36
Rees, S., & Fisher, J. (2020). COVID-19 and the mental health of people from refugee backgrounds. International Journal of Health Services, 50(4), 415–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020731420942475
Rygiel, K. (2011). Bordering solidarities: Migrant activism and the politics of movement and camps at Calais. Citizenship Studies, 15(01), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2011.534911
Salmani, I., Seddighi, H., & Nikfard, M. (2020). Access to health care services for Afghan refugees in Iran in the COVID-19 pandemic. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 14(4), E13–E14. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2020.240
Santinho, M. C. (2013). Afinal, que asilo é este que não nos protege? Etnográfica. Revista do Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia, 17(1), 5–29. https://doi.org/10.4000/etnografica.2522
Santinho, C., Rebelo, D., & Cardoso, S. (2020). Covid-19, the ‘undercover’ Portuguese asylum system, and its jerry-riggings. [Blog post]. https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2020/06/covid-19
Schweitzer, R., & Steel, Z. (2008) Researching refugees: Methodological and ethical considerations. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Doing cross-cultural research (pp. 3-20). Springer.
Sieffien, W., Law, S., & Andermann, L. (2020). Immigrant and refugee mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Additional key considerations [Blog Post]. Canadian Family Physician. https://www.cfp.ca/news/2020/06/23/06-23-1
Smith, M. M. (2001). Asylum seekers in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 175(11–12), 587–589. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2001.tb143738.x
Truman, B. I., Tinker, T., Vaughan, E., Kapella, B. K., Brenden, M., Woznica, C. V., ... & Lichtveld, M. (2009). Pandemic influenza preparedness and response among immigrants and refugees. American Journal of Public Health, 99(S2), S278–S286. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.154054
Turner-Musa, J., Ajayi, O., & Kemp, L. (2020). Examining social determinants of health, stigma, and COVID-19 disparities. Healthcare, 8, 168. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8020168
United Nations. (2020a). Global humanitarian response plan for Covid-19: United nations coordinated appeal April-December 2020.
United Nations. (2020b). Policy brief: The impact of COVID-19 on children. New York.
United Nations. (2020c). Global Humanitarian response plan covid-19. United Nations coordinated appeal. April - December 2020. New York. https ://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/do cuments/files/global_humanitarian_response_plan_covid-19_1.pdf
United Nations. (2020d). Covid-19 and women’S human rights: Guidance-what is the impact of covid-19 on gender-based violence? New York. https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/report/covid-19-and-womens-human-rights-guidance/COVID-19_and_Womens_Human_Rights.pdf
Vacchiano, F. (2018). On marginal inclusion: Refugees at the fringes of citizenship in Portugal, ICS (Lisbon). https://www.academia.edu/37594102/On_marginal_inclusion_refugees_at_the_fringes_of_citizenship_in_Portugal
Verdirame, G., Harrell-Bond, B. E., & Sachs, A. (2005). Rights in exile: Janus-faced humanitarianism (Vol. 17). Berghahn Books.
World Bank (2020). World bank predicts sharpest decline of remittances in recent history [Press Release]. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/04/22/world-bank-predicts-sharpest-decline-of-remittances-in-recent-history
Zetter, R., Griffiths, D., Sigona, N., & Hauser, M. (2002) A survey of policy and practice related to refugee integration in the EU, November 2001–December 2002 (Final Report to European Refugee Fund Community Actions). Brookes University.
Full Text: PDF
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.