Refugee Women, Livelihoods, and Community During a Global Pandemic

• In Event: Migration and the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

In June 2020, a global virtual conference on refugee women’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic was organized by the Global Independent Refugee Women Leaders (GIRWL). The conference brought together refugee women from around the world to share insights on COVID-19’s impact on refugee women, to identify key issues and unmet needs in COVID-19 responses, as well as to map coping strategies by and for refugee women. The conference resulted in various calls to action directed at policymakers and institutions. One of these calls appealed to increased support for community efforts that address the immediate needs and challenges of refugee women in these uncertain times.

The importance of community efforts, defined here as localized sources of support separate from the state (Arneil, 2006), emphasized by refugee women across the globe resonates with preliminary findings from our research on refugee women’s livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portland, Oregon (USA). Refugee women’s livelihoods have been impacted by COVID-19 in various specific ways: from losing jobs and healthcare to becoming essential workers and assuming additional caretaker roles, to finding oneself again in unprecedented situations of limited mobility and social isolation. These impacts have been informed by restricted access to resources and services, lack of information about resources and services, and paramount fear due to ever-changing policy. In many ways, community efforts have addressed the specific needs and challenges of refugee women in the absence of gender-responsive COVID-19 measures across institutional levels and policy areas. We find that it is critical that these efforts prevail beyond the pandemic and become integrated into general practices of livelihood strategies for displaced persons.

Our findings are situated within emerging research on COVID-19’s impact on migration as well as gender perspectives in migration scholarship. Emerging research on COVID-19 at the migration-gender nexus suggests that refugee women are uniquely impacted by the pandemic in terms of healthcare access, gender-based violence (GBV) and caregiving responsibilities (Cone, 2020). According to the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR, 2020a, b), increased caregiving and household responsibilities have resulted in limited access to services such as health resources and GBV prevention. Much of the emerging research, however, lacks gender-specific analysis and data. This gap is reflective of gender-negligence in migration research more broadly which can be explained through dominant methodological approaches used in this line of scholarship. While quantitative models remain a “gold standard” in migration research, the complex interplay between gender and migration requires a qualitative approach (Mahler and Pessar, 2006).

In line with this important methodological intervention, we use interviews and observations as a means of contextualizing, understanding and situating the impact of COVID-19 on refugee women’s livelihoods in Portland. Between May and July 2020, we conducted interviews with fifteen refugee women and representatives of organizations working with refugees. Participants were selected based on the following criteria: refugee women who have sought asylum to the United States since 2011; representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who work directly with refugees for at least five years. We complemented interviews with observations of community efforts that provide services to refugees as beneficiaries. Contacts to refugee women and NGOs were fostered through email and phone outreach given our various capacities at a Portland-based university.

Authors

• Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi, University of Portland

• Kate Harder

• Grace Fortson, University of Portland

• Trevor Bryan Riedmann, Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice