The economic crisis induced by COVID‐19could be long, deep, and pervasive when viewed throughamigration lens. Lockdowns, travel bans, and socialdistancing have brought global economic activities to a nearstandstill. Host countries face additional challenges inmany sectors, such as health and agriculture, that depend onthe availability of migrant workers. Migrants face the riskof contagion and also the possible loss of employment,wages, and health insurance coverage. This Migration andDevelopment Brief provides a prognosis of how these eventsmight affect global trends in international economicmigration and remittances in 2020 and 2021. Considering thatmigrants tend to be concentrated in urban economic centers(cities), and are vulnerable to infection by thecoronavirus, there is a need to include migrants in effortsto fight thecoronavirus. Migrant remittances provide aneconomic lifeline to poor households in many countries; areduction in remittance flows could increase poverty andreduce households’ access to much‐needed health services.The crisis could exacerbate xenophobic, discriminatorytreatment of migrants, which calls for greater vigilanceagainst such practices. This Brief is largely focused oninternational migrants, but governments should not ignorethe plight of internal migrants. The magnitude of internalmigration is about two‐and‐a‐half times that ofinternational migration. Lockdowns, loss of employment, andsocial distancing prompted a chaotic and painful process ofmass return for internal migrants in India and manycountries in Latin America. Thus, the COVID‐19 containmentmeasures might have contributed to spreading the epidemic.Governments need to address the challenges facing internalmigrants by including them in health services andcashtransfer and other social programs, and protecting themfrom discrimination.
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