The Contributions of migrants to Defeat the Pandemic

Health person taking another person's temperature.

The Contributions of migrants to Defeat the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a giant challenge for the world, and migrants are no exception. They have shown great resilience and have faced numerous challenges such as discrimination and xenophobia 

One way to combat this inequality and discrimination is to visibilize the contribution that migrants make to communities and the world in response to the pandemic. You can see their service and influence in health services, food production, transportation, construction, and even the creation of the vaccine against COVID-19, amongst many other industries and fields. We will delve into some of these here: 

1- Migrants are at the forefront of health services  

In countries such as the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom, between 30 and 40 percent of frontline health services are staffed by migrants or people of migrant origin, explains Antonio Vitorino, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a statement that you can see at this link. Migrants perform functions such as nursing, medicine, pharmacy and administrative tasks, but also cleaning tasks, which are essential in a context in which health is vital. 

2-The food we need from the land to the supermarkets  

According to a New American Economy study, migrants in the United States account for nearly 48.6 percent of the agricultural workforce, as well as 49.1 percent of meat processing. 

Furthermore, 31 percent of chefs and cooks are also migrants. On the other hand, migrants also work in food transport services, as well as in supermarkets and restaurants, which are essential for us to get food. 

3- The migrants who made the cure for COVID-19 possible  

Hope returned to millions of people from BioNTech and Pfizer, two companies run by migrants, and responsible for the creation of the COVID-19 vaccine.  

The first of these, a German biotechnology company, which was founded by Ozlem Tureci and Ugur Sahin, a married couple and scientists from Turkey and based in Germany.  

For his part, Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, was born in Greece, and lived there until he was 34 years old, when he migrated to different countries until he reached Pfizer in the United States.  

Leaving no one behind 

It is time for all of us to leave prejudice and misinformation behind: the reality is that migrants play a leading role in the response to the pandemic. We must fight inequality and xenophobia. The only way to end the pandemic that we face as humanity is by leaving no one behind. 

 

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