Letter from Afar

This blog series, launched in May 2020 with Bridget Anderson’s letter Research in extraordinary times, invited colleagues from across the world to tell us about their life and work in times of COVID-19. The series has ended for now but we welcome posts for the MMB blog that continue to reflect on the experience of doing migration and mobilities research during this global pandemic.

• Somatic shifts: the politics of movement in the time of COVIDSeptember 21, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Victoria Hattam. Dispatch from Brooklyn, NY.September 2020 COVID-19 has returned questions of migration and mobility to the centre of politics by upending the distribution of mobility privileges. Who is allowed – or required – to move is changing;… Read more: Somatic shifts: the politics of movement in the time of COVID
• Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Greece during COVID-19August 4, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Theodoros Fouskas. Dear friends, I hope you are staying safe and keeping well. The first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in Greece on 26th February 2020 (National Public Health Organization, 2020a). As subsequent cases in late February and early… Read more: Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Greece during COVID-19
• No longer welcome: migrants face growing racism in South KoreaJuly 21, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Minjae Shin. Dear friends I hope you all are staying safe and keeping well. It has been almost five months since I left Bristol. I am currently in South Korea, my country of origin. Many migrants, including international… Read more: No longer welcome: migrants face growing racism in South Korea
• From ‘social distancing’ to planetary solidarityJuly 14, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Nandita Sharma. Greetings from Hawai’i! Reading Colin’s blog from the ‘afar’ of Bristol has made me think about distance, and the (dis)connections between physical and social distancing. We are physically far apart, but, I like to think, socially… Read more: From ‘social distancing’ to planetary solidarity
• Unemployment and xenophobia persist for migrant workers as China’s lockdown is liftedJune 23, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Xinrong Ma. Dear friends, I hope this letter finds you all very well. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in China at the end of last year, then rapidly spread around the globe. While people in many… Read more: Unemployment and xenophobia persist for migrant workers as China’s lockdown is lifted
• Sweden faces COVID-19 with a neoliberal elderly care system and a racialised labour marketJune 2, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Anders Neergaard. Dear friends, Reading newspapers every day and strolling around the streets and parks of Malmö (Sweden) I watch people trying to live with the pandemic. It’s scary as a human being but interesting as a sociologist.… Read more: Sweden faces COVID-19 with a neoliberal elderly care system and a racialised labour market
• The dismal UK Home Office response to coronavirus: the wider pictureMay 26, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Colin Yeo. Dear Bridget, We’ve learned that closeness does not mean contact, so I hope that this can count as a ‘Letter from Afar’ even if ‘afar’ seems a strangely 19th-century way of talking about the distance between… Read more: The dismal UK Home Office response to coronavirus: the wider picture
• Migrants abandoned – lockdown at the Mexican-Guatemalan borderMay 19, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Ailsa Winton. Dear Bridget I hope you are keeping well and sane. Although working at home is quite normal for me, the anxiety is not. So it was great to read your letter and to be able to… Read more: Migrants abandoned – lockdown at the Mexican-Guatemalan border
• A violent disregard for life: COVID-19 in BrazilMay 12, 2020
  Letter from Afar – the blog series about life and research in the time of COVID-19. By Angelo Martins Junior. Dear friends Two months ago the governor of São Paulo decreed a state of emergency and social isolation measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, I was in São Paulo, conducting fieldwork for… Read more: A violent disregard for life: COVID-19 in Brazil
• Research in extraordinary timesMay 6, 2020
  Bridget Anderson introduces our new blog series, Letter from Afar, in which we invite colleagues from across the world to tell us about their life and work in times of COVID-19. Answers welcome! Dear Friends, I hope you are well – COVID-19 has turned that platitude into a genuine wish – I truly hope you… Read more: Research in extraordinary times