Authored by Laura Foley and Nicola Piper, this paper explores the impacts and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on women migrant workers. It examines how the global health crisis has both amplified existing gender dynamics and created new gender-biased outcomes that disproportionately impact upon women migrant workers. The study investigates the health, social and domestic care services that women migrant workers provide and which are considered “essential” during the pandemic, and contrasts this with migrant workers’ exclusion from key services and supports, before concluding with some recommendations.

This paper is part of a series of short “think pieces” by IOM’s Migration Research and Publishing High-Level Advisers on the potential changes, impacts and implications for migration and mobility arising from COVID-19. Designed to spark thinking on policy and programmatic responses to COVID-19 as its impacts continue to emerge globally, the papers draw upon existing and new evidence and offer initial exploratory analysis and recommendations.