In this erudite research handbook, ACMS/maHp postdoctoral researcher Dr Thea de Gruchy and colleagues draw together the latest research on migration, gender and COVID-19, to contribute towards a better understanding of the immediate and longer-term implications of the pandemic on gender dynamics and roles in international migration.

On 4 April, the IOM and MMC second webinar on the ‘Impact of COVID-19 on Migrants’ explored how the pandemic affected migration dynamics in East Africa. ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey was one of the speakers. Watch the video and download the slides here.

Narratives in a Time of Crisis is a MoVE (method.visual.explore) project that uses citizen journalism as a participatory (arts-based) research strategy to prioritize the perspectives, needs and concerns of international and domestic migrants involved in sex work in South Africa. The project invited a small group of individuals to share their stories of love, hope and hardship following one of the world’s harshest Covid-19 lockdowns.

South Africa has made massive strides in the fight against HIV. One of the country’s flagship interventions has been the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Nevertheless, South Africa still has the world’s largest HIV epidemic. It’s estimated that 7.5 million people in the country have HIV. Women of reproductive age account for more than half of this number – 4.8 million.

At the International Journal of Press/Politics Virtual Conference (13-16 September 2021), maHp/African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS, Wits University) postdoctoral fellow Thea de Gruchy presented a paper (co-authored with Thulie Zikhali, Jo Vearey and Johanna Hanefeld) titled: ‘Framing migration during the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa: a 12-month media monitoring project’.

Join us for the Global Health (in)Security and Immigration Governance in Africa: pandemics, panics, politics and public health planning online workshop taking place on Friday 19th November 2021, as part of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Third Biennial Conference on ‘Global Public Health Challenges: Facing them in Africa’.

This is the fourth in a series of issue briefs that explores the implications of Covid-19 and the South African response to the pandemic on migration and for migrant and mobile communities in South Africa.

maHp/ACMS researchers Rebecca Walker and Jo Vearey discuss how Covid-19 is impacting mental health and existing inequalities in South Africa.

The African LGBTQI+ Migration Research Network (ALMN) and the Gala Queer Archive, both located at Wits, joined forces at the onset of Covid-19 to establish an emergency relief fund to mitigate the adverse effects of the virus on the LGBTQI+ community. For their work, these organisations received nominations as Wits Heroes for going beyond the call of duty.

The Migration and Coronavirus in Southern Africa Coordination Group (MiCoSA) recently (on 25th August) held a high-level dialogue on the access of the Covid-19 vaccine for migrant and mobile populations in South Africa.

Human rights groups and activists are calling on the country’s acting Minister of Health Mmamoloko Kubayi to follow international guidelines by making sure that the Covid-19 vaccination programme is inclusive. ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey has added her voice to the call. Find out why this is important by listening to her SAfm interview here.

African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) director Professor Jo Vearey was recently (27 July 2021) interviewed by eNCA about the call by local scholars, community leaders and activists for the South African government to include undocumented persons in the country’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out strategy. Watch her interview here.

Experts call on the government to address the vaccination of undocumented persons. African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) director Professor Jo Vearey adds her voice to this call. Listen to her interview on the SAfm Sunrise radio show from earlier this week (28 July 2021).

Leaders of social, legal, and academic organisations have come together to call on the South African government to leave no one behind when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccination. The concern is that undocumented migrants are not able to access it. Director of the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) Professor Jo Vearey was recently (on 27 July 2021) interviewed by SABC News about this. Watch the news insert here: About the Author Latest PostsAbout Jo VeareyJo Vearey is a Professor and the Director

South Africa’s civil society and the research community call on Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to do the right thing and follow international guidelines to ensure the Covid-19 vaccination programme is inclusive.

Earlier this week Lester Kiewit of Cape Talk’s ‘The Morning Review’ show spoke to Professor Jo Vearey about the call for Covid-19 vaccines for undocumented migrants.

This week’s issue of ACCORD’s Covid-19 Conflict and Resilience Monitor features a piece from ACMS. The article reflects on the impact of Covid-19 on marginalised populations which include migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs), who have been some of the worst affected during the pandemic.

This is the second in a series of occasional papers that explore the implications of Covid-19 and responses to the pandemic on migration and for migrant and mobile communities on the African continent.

This is the third in a series of issue briefs that explores the implications of Covid-19 and the South African response to the pandemic on migration and for migrant and mobile communities in South Africa.

This occasional paper examines the current state of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out in Africa (as of June 2021), with a particular focus on the attitude and behaviour of states and other key stakeholders towards the inclusion of international migrants.

maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey recently presented at this M8 Alliance expert meeting titled, ‘Ensuring the Covid-19 Vaccine Reaches Undocumented Migrants’, which forms part of a webinar series leading up to the upcoming World Health Summit (October 24-26, 2021). Watch the full webinar here.

In this Daily Maverick op-ed, maHp/ACMS postdoctoral fellow Elsa Oliveira and research associate Rebecca Walker argue that, “government must support and protect all who live here, including foreign-born migrants”.

ACMS and MSF – in collaboration with MiCoSA – recently hosted a webinar titled ‘Healthcare In Transit: Quantifying the health needs of migrants across the Limpopo’. Download the research report and watch the online discussion here.

The African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) in collaboration with the Migration and Coronavirus in Southern Africa Coordination Group (MiCoSA) would like to invite you to attend the Southern African consultation on the “covidisation” of migration and health research.

maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey will be taking part in this M8 Alliance webinar on 30 March titled, ‘Ensuring the Covid-19 Vaccine Reaches Undocumented Migrants’, which is co-organised with the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).

African Center for Migration and Society (ACMS) director, Professor Jo Vearey was recently quoted in this Thomson Reuters Foundation New’s article expressing her concern over possible “formal or de facto discrimination against undocumented migrants when it comes to vaccine access”.

As countries begin to roll out Covid-19 vaccination programmes, maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey argues there is no place for ‘vaccine nationalism’; that the principle of equity in global health access must be at the fore.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced the closure of 20 land borders in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus. In this 702fm conversation with Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Professor Jo Vearey explains why shutting borders is not a helpful response to Covid-19.

maHp/ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey recently appeared on Newzroom Afrika urging African governments to deal with immigration during the Covid-19 pandemic collaboratively.

On the Beitbridge border posts hundreds of Zimbabweans have been captured waiting for days in the line to escape the thirty day hard lockdown that was recently implemented. maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey spoke to Channel Africa about this humanitarian crises.

According to CMS/maHp director Jo Vearey, Sally Gandar, Rebecca Walker and Francois Venter, the government’s decision to focus on tracking, detaining and deporting migrants as they cross into South Africa is at the expense of the many systemic challenges faced in accessing documentation – including Covid certificates.

UoE student and ACMS/maHp intern Robin Arendse shares a summary of her MSc in Global Health Policy dissertation, which asked the question, ‘How migration-aware was South Africa’s initial response to Covid-19?’.

Associate Professor Jo Vearey recently presented at the 67th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). Watch and read the full submission here.

UoE student and maHp intern Rachel Benavides gives a synopsis of her MSc International Development research project titled ‘Virtual Engagement and Knowledge in Context: Migration Health Research Communications in South Africa during Covid-19’, which she conducted as part of her internship at the ACMS.

South Africa’s biggest city is ground zero for debates about the long-term effectiveness and constitutionality of militarized urban policing and how we imagine the post-Covid city. maHp/ACMS writing fellow Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon leans in on the discussions.

The University of the Witwatersrand’s Humanities Graduate Centre and the RReal Covid Project will be hosting this webinar titled Migrants and Vulnerabilities during the Covid-19 Pandemic on Monday, 12 October 2020, 14:00-15:30 SAST.

The Wits Pandemic Pangolin webinar series returns tomorrow, Wednesday 30 September, at 13:00 – 14:00 SAST. This week’s dialogue titled Human Rights and Fighting Discrimination during Epidemics takes up the way that Covid-19 has acted as a transmission belt of wider social anxieties around justice, equity and prejudice.

This is the second in a series of issue briefs that explores the implications of Covid-19 and the South African response to the pandemic on migration and for migrant and mobile communities in South Africa.

This is the first in a series of issue briefs that explores the implications of Covid-19 and the South African response to the pandemic on migration and for migrant and mobile communities in South Africa. 

ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey chats to Radio 702’s Eusebius McKaiser. 

Do you need legal or psycho-social assistance during the national Covid-19 lockdown and ongoing pandemic? See this infographic and list of services for refugees and migrants during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The IOM Migration Health Research Portal has established an interactive, open-source, searchable, repository of research publications on COVID-19 in relation to migrants, migration, and human mobility.

APO Group, the leading pan-African communications and business consultancy, recently announced they will support the dissemination of coronavirus-related information from African governments to the press and public.

Last night (14 April 2020) ACMS Professor Jo Vearey was interviewed by Godfred Akoto Boafo of Citi TV’s current affairs show ‘Face to Face’, about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on migrants.

LHR and CoRMSA recently tweeted an information sheet about the rights that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in South Africa have during this Covid-19 national lockdown.

ACMS Masters student Sinoyolo Godongwana blogs about the plight of informal food traders in Mangaung, amid this unfolding global pandemic – Covid-19.

Wits University’s COVID-19 dashboard has grown with new data features, including snapshot views of how the pandemic is spreading in Africa, as well as statistics showing world trends, being added.

Have you experienced any form of discrimination in relation to COVID-19 because of where you come from, your nationality and/or ethnicity? Then report your experiences to Xenowatch.

This is one of two blog posts where Protect researchers reflect upon how the Corona pandemic is affecting people on the move across the world. In this post, Professor Jo Vearey from Wits University and Professor Idil Atak from Ryerson University share their insights from South Africa and Canada.

The South African government has set up an online resource portal to specifically share information about the Covid-19 / coronavirus pandemic, as it relates to the country.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, a non-governmental organisation that offers development and welfare programmes to the migrant and local communities of Cape Town, has recently produced information sheets about Covid-19 and the 21-day national lockdown regulations in multiple languages (namely Swahili, Shona, French, Lingala, Portuguese and English).

ACMS/maHp associate researcher Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, and the general secretary of the Inner-City Federation Siyabonga Mahlangu argue that it is critical the police and army deployment for the Covid-19 lockdown not result in the persecution of residents of unlawful occupations.

South Africa mustn’t forget the public — and that includes migrants and refugees — in its public health response to COVID-19, writes ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey.

Both the United States and South Africa have punted increased border security as a way to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s why South Africa should be thinking less about walls and more about amnesty as cases mount.

ACMS Masters student Shireen Mukadam speaks to the poor about the impact of the coronavirus and the national lockdown on their lives.

International solidarity, travel restrictions and the right to remain: why South Africa needs to actively engage all foreign migrants in its response to Covid-19.

ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey discusses South Africa’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic on the ‘Monday Morning Meetings on Migration’ show.

ACMS director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey explains how the sanctimony of moving from blaming foreign migrants to now rendering them invisible in a critical public health moment will have implications for our response to Covid-19.

ACMS Associate Professor Jo Vearey was recently part of an interview panel on the SABC News Unfiltered talk show that discussed migration and Covid-19 in South Africa.