The primary social use of the pandemic has produced an overwhelmingly fear of the virus, of the other, of contagion, of disease, and ultimately, of death. These fears justified border closures and the adoption of a series of measures to control the mobility of the population within the national spaces. Foreigners embody the figure of the other, specifically, of racialized, suspicious bodies. In times of pandemic, suspension is exacerbated and the fear of foreign bodies are seen as vectors of contagion. In several countries, forms of social and state xenophobia towards certain categories of migrant population have been reported. In Guatemala, the government and the public are suspicious of Guatemalan deportees arriving from the United States. In Chile, government authorities associate the virus  and its rapid spread with the Haitian community, whereas in Argentina, “agreed-upon deportations” have been implemented to expel certain tourists who could be a source of contagion such as Korean or European migrants. 

 

The pandemic fear has impacted the migrant population in the Americas in different ways. Fear also operates within the migrant population, but it has some other nuances. Irregularized migrants and asylum seekers fear getting sick and not receiving help, being unemployed, not having food to eat, and not being able to pay the rent and being evicted. They fear that their lives will become more precarious than they were before the pandemic. In various countries in the region, they also fear social and state xenophobia, raids, detentions, and deportations, or to dying in detention centers with COVID-19.  These fears derive from xenophobic policies that construct them as public burdens and that criminalize them incessantly. In our continent, the United States is the most paradigmatic case as raids, detentions, and deportation have not ceased despite the pandemic. The Supreme Court has authorized express deportations even of legal residents who have committed crimes (including misdemeanors) from up to seven years prior. 

 

Anti-migrant measures 

 

The Trump administration has adopted anti-migration measures such as the “public charge rule.” While this charge does not include emergency health care, the policy deters migrants from seeking medical care in the fear of being barred from regularization in the future.

In Columbia, the mayor of Bogotá stated that Venezuelan migrants were an “economic burden” for the capital's government. Public measures and statements targeting migrants exacerbate fear among the mobile population, especially if they are irregular migrants. For this reason, many migrants are afraid to seek social assistance, health care services, or even report abuses.

 

Fear can immobilize and turn the population docile. It can also trigger strategies to fight for life. In Canada, the United States, and Mexico,  irregularized migrants organized hunger strikes because they fear contracting COVID-19 due to unhealthy conditions of the detention centers. In addition, despite the closure of borders and surveillance, many irregularized migrants have undertaken returns, practically forced, to their places of origin because of fear of contagion, the precariousness of their lives, and state and social xenophobia.