Healthcare, Migration and Politics in the Middle East : The Covid-19 Pandemic in Local Contexts

This book discusses the impact of international migrants and refugees in the Middle East in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on 3 main questions: What has the role of international migrants been in coping with Covid-19? How has this international health crisis affected international migrants and refugees? How has it affected socio-economic and political structures? The authors assess the relationship between healthcare, international migration and the pandemic through specific case-studies including: Türkiye, with reference to the case of Uzbek and Georgian migrant women, Türkiye with reference to Turkish citizens’ attitudes towards Syrian refugees, Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and students’ and immigrant professors’ ethnographic experiences, the Arab Gulf countries and the Pakistan Medical Centre in Dubai, Arabia and the case-study of Oman, and Iran. The argument seeks to move beyond the idea of migrants as victims of the pandemic, and sheds light on the active role and agency of migrants to underline their substantive contribution to coping with the health crisis.