Assessing the Risks and Effectiveness of Pandemic Control Measures: the Migration Aspect

The article is devoted to the problem of the implementation of the universal right to freedom of movement and the measures used to limit it in the context of epidemiological threats associated with the global pandemic of 2020. The modern pandemic, being, in fact, an event provoked in many respects by the processes of globalization and the unprecedented level of migration exchange of population between states and regions, has caused the need for a sharp restriction of all types of movement. This, in turn, has updated scientific research aimed at studying the risks of the disease and the adequacy of measures to combat the pandemic in the field of containing mobility. This article is based on a pilot sociological study of personal and national epidemiological risks from the standpoint of their population’s assessments. The empirical base also contains a block of information related to assessments of the effectiveness of measures to restrict movement developed and applied in Russia. In addition, the paper considers the risks associated with the consequences of restraining mobility, such as loss of work and income, the expected migration loss of the population, the possibility of replacing local labor resources by labor migrants, and others. The results of the survey made it possible to obtain the views of the Russian population on the most acceptable and approved measures to combat the pandemic in the field of migration. The rating of the weighted average assessment of the effectiveness of measures during the period of coronavirus infection related to population mobility was presented. We also analyzed typical risk assessments from the population regarding migration movements, not only for the entire population of respondents, but also for individual age groups of respondents. And the features of assessing the effectiveness of measures to combat the pandemic in different age groups of survey participants were revealed. The survey was conducted in October 2020, when the second wave of the pandemic was just developing. Therefore, the article contains some comparative results of the respondents’ assessment of the risks and facts of the real situation of the development of the pandemic. The article will be of interest to both the scientific community: demographers, sociologists, and government officials. Its findings will make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the developed public policy measures and balance the need for restrictive orders and freedom of movement in the face of growing epidemiological threats.