Open Access“More Important than COVID-19”: Temporary Visas and Compounding Vulnerabilities for Health and Well-Being from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Australia
Author(s) -
Moira Walsh,
Clemence Due,
Anna Ziersch
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
refuge
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1920-7336
pISSN - 0229-5113
DOI - 10.25071/1920-7336.40840
Subject(s) - refugee , precarity , pandemic , covid-19 , immigration , political science , economic growth , medicine , law , economics , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Refugees and asylum seekers on temporary visas typically experience interacting issues related to employment, financial precarity, and poor health and well-being. This research aimed to explore whether these issues were exacerbated by the social impacts of COVID-19. Interviews were conducted both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic with 15 refugees and asylum seekers living in South Australia on temporary visas. While this research found that COVID-19 did lead to a range of negative health and other outcomes such as employment challenges, a key finding was the reiteration of temporary visas as a primary pathway through which refugees and asylum seekers experience heightened precarity and the associated pervasive negative health and well-being outcomes. The findings emphasize the importance of immigration and welfare policy.