Between March and May of 2020, as the pandemic turned cities into hotspots under lockdown, millions of urban workers across Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan lost their livelihoods and were forced back to their villages.
“We may look back at this moment as The Great Reverse Migration,” wrote the authors of a study that tracked the relationship between these migration patterns and the spread of the virus in a short piece on the World Bank’s People Move blog.
FAI’s Executive Director Jonathan Morduch, with co-authors Jean N. Lee, Mahreen Mahmud, Saravana Ravindra and Abu Shonchoy, found that while international out-migration was strongly associated with the spread in all 3 countries, domestic migration was a less consistent source of contagion in Bangladesh and Pakistan. The results also showed large cross-border negative externalities caused by stringent COVID-19 response policies in migrant-receiving countries. As richer countries locked cities and workplaces down to contain the spread, this left migrant workers unemployed, causing them to migrate back to their South Asian homes with the risk of carrying the virus with them.
For further analysis of these findings, read the blog post.
(Gallery image credit: Adnan Abidi/Reuters)
Editor’s Note: I’m going to assume that you are seeing plenty of AI content (news and papers, not AI slop, though I’m sure you’re getting plenty of that too) from other sources, so I’m trying to think hard about the marginal value that the faiV can provide. As far as I’ve gotten so far: a) make sure that directly AI-related content does not take up more than 2 of the 5 items, and b) try to focus specifically on the cybersecurity issue for financial inclusion. Beyond that, I’m open to feedback on the value you get from the faiV in relation to AI to help guide us in the future. On a different note, I’ll be making a brief cameo appearance at the e-MFP Inclusive Finance Conference to moderate the opening plenary. If you haven’t registered, do so and I hope to see you there! - Tim Ogden