Post-COVID Politics of Displacement: Marginalization, Precarity and Identity

Dear Colleagues, 

This Special Issue of Genealogy welcomes articles on the topic “Post-COVID Politics of Displacement: Marginalization, Precarity and Identity.”

As COVID-19 has retreated into endemic status, many of the emergency measures associated with the pandemic are being rolled-back, from mask mandates to lockdowns. Yet, immigration restrictions and obstacles to movement across borders for the most marginalized and desperate communities remain intact with little effort to create further relief through legal, orderly and safe pathways to asylum and immigration. For example, in the post-COVID era:

• Drownings in the English Channel have increased;
• Humanitarian search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea continue to be obstructed by states with tragic results;
• Latin American migratory routes to the US border remain highly dangerous;
• Refugee resettlement in North America and asylum proceedings in European Union have amassed bewildering backlogs;
• Ukrainian refugees remain one of the few groups with some mobility across borders, although even their prospects are tied to temporary protections.

This Special Issue aims to analyze the increased marginalization of displaced people around the world in the so-called “new normal” and underscore the intersectionality of displacement politics with agency, belonging, and identity formation among refugees and immigrants under conditions of restricted borders, precarious crossings, and closed legal systems. While literature about COVID-19 has emphasized the disproportionate effects of the pandemic and associated measures on marginalized and displaced populations, there has been less focus on how global immigration restrictions that persist have compounded the trauma and increased vulnerability of the post-COVID landscape.  Understanding the effects of precarity on refugees, asylum-seekers, and undocumented migrants, as well as the creative responses of these populations to resist, persist, and resiliently survive these restrictions, are necessary to critically approach global trends that so directly affect human security.

Questions for this issue include—but are not limited to—the following:

• How does international law contribute to evolving post-COVID immigration disparities?
• How do gender and race play into new forms of post-pandemic marginalization among displaced communities?
• How do immigrants respond to new forms of marginalization at border-crossings?
• Which immigration restrictions profoundly reshape identities and belonging, and how do they do so?
• How do new immigration restrictions compound precarity? Influence human security?
• What are the ways in which documented and undocumented immigrant identities are shaped by bureaucracies in a post-COVID setting?
• How is victimhood constructed through sociopolitical experiences of post-COVID immigration and displacement?
• What are new forms of agency and resilience among immigrants or refugees that promote novel articulations of belonging and/or utilize new technologies or networks to rearticulate precarity?
• Why do displaced children and unaccompanied youth play a particularly central role in the post-COVID era? What kinds of agency are available to these younger displaced populations?
• How do humanitarianism crises affect international migration in a post-COVID environment?

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editor (bellis@sfsu.edu) or to Genealogy editorial office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Prof. Dr. Burcu Akan Ellis
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). All papers submitted to this Special Issue will be published free of charge. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• international migration
• displacement politics
• refugees
• asylum-seekers
• gender and migration
• intersectionality
• identity politics
• post-COVID
• unaccompanied youth and children
• technology and immigration
• border politics
• restrictive immigration
• vulnerability
• precarity
• resilience
• critical security
• human security

Title: Diversified Gendered Labor Struggles: Venezuelan Immigrant Mothers Navigating Uncertainty and Pandemic Constraints
Author: Gul
Highlights: - Migration and Gender: Challenging traditional gender equality assumptions in migration scholarship; diverse struggles of immigrant women - Labor Market Struggles: Uncertain status heightens Venezuelan mothers' challenges; worsened post-pandemic labor conditions; shift to domestic roles - Intensified Gender Roles: Pandemic deepens traditional household gender roles - Private-Public Interplay: Shifting labor dynamics increase women's household roles; crucial grasping private-public struggle interactions