Migration, Integration, and the Pandemic

This chapter serves as an introduction to the volume Migration and Integration in a Post-Pandemic World: Socioeconomic Opportunities and Challenges and is a broad and selected overview of the socioeconomic field of international migration and integration as we knew it before the Covid-19 pandemic. It sets the stage for exploring how the critical event of the virus impacted and may continue to impact our understanding of diverse macro-, meso-, and micro-level challenges and opportunities in migration and integration. The chapter motivates the purpose of the volume, as well as the structure of the 15 chapters and their individual contributions ranging from migration over time, transnationalism, migration policies and implementation, the role of trade unions and civil society actors, country-of-origin sector sorting and required skills, along with immigrant discrimination and vaccine hesitancy among migrant groups.