Undocumented migrants in Saudi Arabia: COVID‐19 and amnesty reforms

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia's domestic public health institutions struggle to control the COVID19 virus's spread within undocumented migrant populations, endangering both local Saudi and migrant populations. As a result, Saudi Arabia implemented a temporary amnesty policy, g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Migration 2022-02, Vol.60 (1), p.188-204
Main Author: Alsharif, Fahad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amnesties
COVID-19
Economic opportunities
Fieldwork
Health care
Health care access
Health problems
Health services
Migrants
Migration
Original
Pandemics
Policy making
Populations
Public health
Qualitative analysis
Reforms
Security
Undocumented immigrants
Viruses
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Summary:During the COVID‐19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia's domestic public health institutions struggle to control the COVID19 virus's spread within undocumented migrant populations, endangering both local Saudi and migrant populations. As a result, Saudi Arabia implemented a temporary amnesty policy, granting state pardon to undocumented migrants to access to health care services. Using combined qualitative fieldwork data in 2008‐2009 and, more recently in 2020 among irregular Asian and African migrants' communities in Jeddah, I argue that the lack of institutional trust, combined with differential economic opportunities in Saudi and origin countries, significantly impacts undocumented migrants' decision to avoid health amnesty reform. This is particularly critical as it could likely disrupt government attempts at curbing COVID‐19 within migrant communities, thus posing serious health, economic, and security threats to the Saudi state. The study contributes to empirical and theoretical debates because it highlights migrant perception's role towards local institutions in Gulf's domestic migration policymaking.
ISSN:0020-7985
1468-2435
DOI:10.1111/imig.12838