COVID-19, Migration, and Educational Equity: A Transnational Literature Review

• In Event: Crossing Borders to Connect Routes: Understanding Educational Inequities Affecting Immigrants, From a Transnational Perspective

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities in an increasingly unequal society. The fear of legal repercussions, along with poverty and limited access to social services and healthcare, has badly affected minoritized and disadvantaged communities, including immigrants (McAuliffe & Triandafyllidou, 2021). In education, the consequences of the lockdown and the physical closures of schools have had a disproportionate impact on children and youths with limited access to resources and learning opportunities, aggravating an already concerning learning crisis (World Bank, 2020). While the pandemic is a global and highly disruptive phenomenon, the body of knowledge about its impact on the education of immigrants is still emerging, scattered, and not yet systematized. Aiming to contribute to fill this gap, this paper presents the results of a literature review that offers a transnational, well-founded and critical vision of the existing literature about the impact of the pandemic on education equity in five countries.
The approach chosen is a scoping review (SR). SRs are useful for examining emerging evidence and to provide a general summary of a specific topic (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). We have used this procedure with the aim of mapping key concepts and clarifying working definitions and conceptual boundaries for international research. The review focuses on published evidence that intersects migration, COVID‐19 and education, from March 2020 to March 2022, including micro-qualitative studies and macro-global research.
Evidence has been retrieved through a systematic search across national and international databases, in English, Maltese, Portuguese and Spanish, covering a wide range of disciplines and methodologies. Due to its focus on the pandemic, limited research has been published through traditional venues. As a result, the search has included journal articles, books, book chapters, and gray literature.
Preliminary results point out three key themes: 1) the worsening of preexisting inequities experienced by marginalized and minoritized immigrant populations, including educational inequities. For example, either governmental programs put in place to support disadvantaged groups have not been available to immigrants, or immigrants have been worried that accessing those benefits would have negative consequences due to their legal status, 2) the increasing stigmatization of immigrants. For example, immigrant children and youths have been targeted as potential transmitters of COVID-19, further increasing their isolation, stigmatization and lack of protection, and 3) the pandemic has impacted the mental health of immigrants, as they navigate tense political landscapes, together with having to juggle the consequences of the pandemic.
The results of this literature review will allow the overall project to make specific contributions to societal and schooling factors related to inequities in opportunities to learn, with an intentional focus on equity and social justice. Its scientific significance lies in providing an integrated and critical view of the scientific and technical knowledge about immigrants’ education in the context of COVID-19, a topic which, due to its emerging nature, has not yet been systematized. Also, by analyzing existing evidence from a transnational perspective, this review sheds light on how educational opportunities and challenges posed by the pandemic are being studied, analyzed, or assessed, worldwide.

Authors

• Dante Javier Salto, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
  Presenting Author

• Mónica Elena Da Silva Ramos, Universidad de la República
  Non-Presenting Author