Children and COVID-19 Research Library

COVID-19 has exacerbated the existing crisis that the vulnerable refugee population faces. More than a million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh. COVID-19 has affected both males and females. It is critical to understand how this population group is coping during this trying period. They are constituted by 52% women and 55% adolescents. The socioeconomic and physiological repercussions of the pandemic on the Rohingya people are contextualised in this study. The socioeconomic and health impacts of COVID-19 on Rohingya women and adolescents in Bangladesh are investigated. Because of the restrictions imposed, over 63% of Rohingya adolescent females suffered from food scarcity. The vast majority of respondents (87%) stated that they had reduced their meal frequency, resulting in a protein deficiency. Since their arrival in Bangladesh, they have had limited access to medical and educational facilities. The pandemic has further exacerbated the situation. Girls are more vulnerable to sexual and gender-based abuse, early marriage, school dropout, and pregnancy. This research aims to add to existing knowledge on refugees, Rohingya, women, and adolescents

Most of the research on refugee economic participation has focused on adult refugee populations, particularly men. Data on adolescents and youth, particularly girls and young women, is limited. This report aims to fill some of these research gaps and contribute to efforts to support refugee youth to realise their potential in line with the commitments enshrined in both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to ‘leave no one behind’, and in the Global Compact on Refugees, to ‘enhance refugee self-reliance’. Focusing on male and female youth aged 15–24 years from Syrian and Palestinian refugee communities in Jordan, as well as vulnerable Jordanians in host communities, the report captures their aspirations and experiences in building independent and sustainable livelihoods. It incorporates a gender lens to identify and analyse the factors that promote or hinder youth participation in the labour market, paying particular attention to gender norms and roles.

Echoing global trends, where the absolute number of displaced persons continues to grow in tandem with the proportion of people living in protracted displacement, the vast majority of both Syrian and Palestinian refugee communities in Lebanon have been there for 10 years or longer. So, how can decision-makers lay the foundations for gender-responsive education systems and economic empowerment for refugee youth in Lebanon? The collapse of Lebanon’s GDP by 58% during recent years has resulted not only in an explosion of demand for humanitarian assistance, but also created growing concerns about meeting SDG targets. Questions arise over how best to support adolescents and young people to transition into adulthood in the midst of such intertwined, and escalating, crises. This ODI Report began with an extensive review of secondary data, and uses primary qualitative data collected from Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon over the first half of 2021. Our research aims to identify programming proposals and recommended actions for donor and policy-makers to facilitate the economic and educational success for all young refugees living permanently outside their country's borders.

Worldwide, more people are on the move now than ever before, yet many refugees and migrants face poorer health outcomes than the host populations. Addressing their health needs is, therefore, a global health priority and integral to the principle of the right to health for all. The key is to strengthen and maintain health systems by ensuring that they are refugee- and migrant-sensitive and inclusive. Health outcomes are influenced by a whole host of determinants. However, refugees and migrants face additional determinants such as precarious legal status; discrimination; social, cultural, linguistic, administrative and financial barriers; lack of information about health entitlements; low health literacy; and fear of detention and deportation. This groundbreaking publication outlines current and future opportunities and challenges and provides several strategies to improve the health and well-being of refugees and migrants. It is an advocacy tool for national and international policy-makers involved in health and migration.

In 2020–2021, World Vision listened to girls’ and boys’ experiences and shined a light on the consequences of the pandemic on refugee and internally displaced children in fragile contexts. In surveying refugee and internally displaced children in 2022, World Vision again looked at the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, as well as the emerging global hunger crisis and what it means for forcibly displaced girls and boys. World Vision's 2022 World Refugee Day report presents evidence that incomes and livelihoods are still decreasing as access to food, education, health services, and protection continues to be severely affected for people who are forcibly displaced, including refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The report brings attention to those refugees that the international community have left behind due to trending news; the breaking news cycle has affected the international community's prioritisation of emerging crises over people suffering from protracted conflicts as their lives stagnate for years or even decades.

This report shares findings from qualitative research on the impacts of Covid-19 on Cambodian migrant workers in four sites along the Cambodia-Thai border. Government restrictions in Thailand and the border closure in February 2020 led to job losses and reduced working hours, and ultimately to an increase in the rate of return migration. Return migrants were forced to use informal points of entry with the facilitation of informal brokers, facing increased costs and risks and, in the process, becoming undocumented. This report shows an unequal access to health services between documented and undocumented migrants. Even in the context of Covid-19, some migrants continue to travel with young children who support the family, mostly through light agricultural work.

Group well-child care (GWCC) is an alternative to traditional pediatric well-child care designed to increase parental social support and peer learning. This mixed methods study explored the adaptation and implementation of GWCC to a virtual format during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 pandemic) among Spanish-speaking Latino immigrant families. Interviews were conducted with eight providers and 10 mothers from May through September 2020. Qualitative analyses used a priori codes based on an implementation science framework. Quantitative data included demographics, the COVID-19 Impact Scale, and virtual group attendance. Bivariate analyses identified correlates of virtual visit attendance.

Family separation policies’ impacts on children’s education and well-being are critical issues of our time. This paper argues through ethnographic study that although im/migrant parents believed in the promise of a better life for their children as they migrated, COVID-19 and remote schooling contributed to a breakdown in structures of care once they were in the United States. Thus, the experience of remote schooling during 2020 was a difficult task for parents and children who were already dealing with the trauma of detention or separation at the border. Ultimately, we argue that to understand the educational experiences of im/migrant parents and children in the United States, we must consider a multiple disruptions framework. The findings in this article reveal the layered consequences that broader immigration policy has on the everyday educational lives of im/migrant children and their parents.

This paper presents research on girls’ and boys’ gendered perceptions of their learning during school closures due to COVID-19. The research was conducted in ten countries affected by displacement across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It applied statistical analysis using multivariate logistic regression models from the results of a survey conducted with parents or caregivers and their children. It complemented the quantitative study with qualitative methodology, which provided a nuanced understanding of girls’ and boys’ perceptions of their learning and their voiced concerns during the COVID-19-related school closures.

As of 2021, more than 80 million people worldwide have been displaced by war, violence, and poverty. An estimated 30 to 34 million of these are under age 18, and many are at risk of interrupting their education permanently—a situation aggravated in recent years by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This article adopts an intersectional conceptual framework to explore the roles gender and other social inequalities have played in shaping adolescents’ access to education during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines two refugee populations: the Rohingya, who have been excluded from formal education opportunities in Bangladesh, and Syrian refugees in Jordan, who have access to formal education in their host country. It provides novel empirical data, as well as insights into the adolescent refugee experience and the short-term consequences for education resulting from the pandemic. The article draws from quantitative survey data on 3,030 adolescents, and from in-depth qualitative interviews conducted in the spring of 2020 with a subset of 91 adolescents who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study. A 40 key informant interviews with community leaders and service providers was also conducted.

From the point of apprehension by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the U.S.–Mexican border to their reunification with sponsors in U.S. communities, unaccompanied children (UC) face political, social, and economic conditions, heightening their risk for mental and physical health burdens that may be exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such risk underscores the importance of social work practice and advocacy for the improved treatment and experiences of UC. This article uses a structural vulnerability conceptual lens to summarize the existing literature regarding UC and argues that UC’s liminal immigration status, economic precarity, and lack of healthcare access place this group at high structural vulnerability during the pandemic. Further, this article identifies and describes three contexts of structural vulnerability of UC that are important points of social work intervention: (1) at the border, where migrant children are denied their legal right to seek protection; (2) in detention and shelter facilities; and (3) during reunification with sponsors. This article concludes with important practice and policy opportunities for social workers to pursue to obtain social justice for an important and highly vulnerable migrant child population.

International labour migration has become a crucial part of the Nepali society. The number of youths leaving the country for employment is significantly high, with around half a million people taking labour permits every year. Lack of economic opportunities within the country is cited as one of the major reasons for seeking foreign employment. The government has planned to create employment opportunities in the country so that international labour migration can become a choice than compulsion. COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on Nepali migrant workers, who have been key contributors to the socioeconomic development of Nepal. During the migration cycle and upon return, migrant workers continue to face vulnerabilities and challenges to fully reintegrate back in their home communities due to their migration experiences. This study attempts to map the services that are available and directly or indirectly contribute to sustainable reintegration of returnee migrant workers. The research has identified good practices, gaps, challenges and has recommended a way ahead that can be a departure point for addressing the gaps surfaced for a sustainable reintegration.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically impacted labour conditions and labour migration across Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Thailand. This study assesses the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on men and women migrant workers and their families in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Thailand to inform a migrant-centred approach to socioeconomic recovery from the pandemic with evidence-based recommendations. The research applied a mixed-methods approach including a quantitative survey with a total of 2,187 migrants, 156 employers, and 63 key informant interviews.

This research report explores and critically examines the short- and longer-term gender implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration and the well-being of migrants worldwide. This research report aims to inform ongoing policy and programmatic responses to the pandemic and highlights best practices and challenges. The report analyses the gender impacts of COVID-19 on different “groups” of migrants, including health-care workers, agricultural and domestic migrant workers, internally displaced persons and international students, and assesses migrant vulnerabilities as well as the opportunities for gender-responsive migration governance that have been revealed by the pandemic.

Education security exists when every child has equal access to quality education. Rohingya refugee children suffer widespread rates of education insecurity both in their home country, Myanmar and in their host country, Bangladesh. While the right to education is recognized in several human rights instruments, access to education is not ubiquitous, making the ability to achieve this right challenging for many Rohingya. Government restrictions on accredited education, COVID-19 related school closures, failures in launching a pilot of the Myanmar curriculum, and recent government plans to relocate refugees to Bhasan Char Island have created a ‘lost generation’ of Rohingya youth. This study traces the development of education insecurity among the Rohingya, a stateless ethnic minority group who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 in response to ethnic violence in Myanmar. Drawing upon available literature and primary fieldwork, this study examines the social, cultural, and political determinants of learning opportunities for Rohingya children.