”More Important than COVID-19”: Temporary Visas and Compounding Vulnerabilities for Health and Well-Being from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Australia

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Abstract

Refugees and asylum seekers on temporary visas typically experience interacting issues related to employment, financial precarity, and poor health and well-being. This research aimed to explore whether these issues were exacerbated by the social impacts of COVID-19. Interviews were conducted both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic with 15 refugees and asylum seekers living in South Australia on temporary visas. While this research found that COVID-19 did lead to a range of negative health and other outcomes such as employment challenges, a key finding was the reiteration of temporary visas as a primary pathway through which refugees and asylum seekers experience heightened precarity and the associated pervasive negative health and wellbeing outcomes. The findings emphasize the importance of immigration and welfare policy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11-26
Number of pages16
JournalRefuge
Volume38
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Apr 2022

Keywords

  • asylum seeker
  • COVID-19
  • mental health
  • refugee
  • temporary visas

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