UN migration agency: COVID has ‘radically altered’ mobility

UN migration agency: COVID has 'radically altered' mobility | AP News GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. migration agency says the coronavirus pandemic appears to have accelerated “hostile rhetoric” against migrants in the world and “radically altered” mobility, projecting in a new report that travel and other COVID-19-fighting restrictions could dampen migration worldwide as long as they remain. AP NEWS

GENEVA (AP) —  ..

The International Organization for Migration released Wednesday its World Migration Report 2022, a vast compendium of the latest trends in human movement of all types — from people fleeing war to workers seeking jobs abroad — and a recap of the last two years of mobility. It cited the impact, for example, of a plunge in air travel last year as the pandemic was raging.

IOM pointed to a “dramatic increase” in internal displacement — movement within countries — caused by natural disasters, conflict and violence just as COVID-19 restrictions have sporadically shut borders across the globe since the pandemic emerged and spread over the last two years.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered immobility worldwide to an extent unseen in recent history, slowing the pace of human mobility and migration,” said Ugochi Daniels, IOM’s deputy director-general for operations, at a meeting of its member states. “The pandemic is estimated to have negatively impacted the total growth of international migrants by 2 million.”

IOM Director-General Antonio Vitorino said “the pandemic also seems to have accelerated the hostile rhetoric toward migrants that has been growing in the last decade.”

“So we have devoted, in this report, a chapter on disinformation about migration,” he said. “Our research shows that debunking myth, as well as pre-bunking strategies, can help to mitigate or prevent harm caused by nefarious actors, who seek to undermine balanced discussions on migration.” ...