Covid-19 and its influence on life content

Migration and Mobility

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  How is the pandemic affecting immigrants, including those that have immigrated temporarily and those planning to immigrate?
  

The restriction of movement, calls for social distancing, and border closings have decreased mobility and both internal and international migration. Immigrants that leave their families for seasonal or care-related work are unable to provide financial support to their families back home and are also separated from them. Those who were in a transition phase and looking to pursue their education or move for a new job opportunity are now unable to fulfil these goals. Those needing refuge because their lives are in danger will also suffer if they are not able to leave their homes.

Moving Forward

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  Why do we need a life course perspective of this pandemic?
  

With a life course perspective, researchers can make time-based comparisons as the impact of the pandemic will depend on one’s age and life stage. Researchers are compelled to consider individuals’ past biographies to understand why certain people may be more vulnerable. They can also look at the future to see how delayed transitions, for example, will affect an individual’s future development or how the uncertainty affects their perceptions of and plans for the future.

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  What data are needed?
  

 As the pandemic unfolds, we must continue to monitor which societal changes will be temporary, which will be long-lasting and even lead to permanent systemic change, and how these will affect the life courses of individuals, families and whole populations. Due to the centrality of time and time-related phenomena in life course research, longitudinal data will naturally be the most important data resource on the COVID-19 pandemic. The greatest data gains will be made by building on ongoing longitudinal projects that link information on life before COVID-19 to experiences during and specific to the pandemic. Ad hoc data collection will also be needed to examine how policy contexts, institutional responses, social networks, and personal agency and sense of control affect virus spread and the lived experience of a COVID-19 diagnosis and/or the changes brought about by the larger pandemic.