1.1 The extended Mediterranean region

18 b U ilding resilient migr A tion s Y stems in t H e mediterr A ne A n region

Map 1.1 The extended Mediterranean region

Countries covered in report

IBRD 46410 | FEBRUARY 2022

Source: world bank. Note: the extended mediterranean region (shaded blue) includes Albania, Algeria, bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, the Arab republic of egypt, France, greece, israel, italy, Jordan, lebanon, libya, malta, morocco, montenegro, slovenia, spain, the syrian Arab republic, tunisia, turkey, and west bank and gaza. it also includes the gulf Cooperation Council states: bahrain, kuwait, oman, Qatar, saudi Arabia, and the United Arab emirates.

responses that can help countries restart migration safely and better respond to future shocks. The COVID-19 crisis has posed severe challenges to lives and livelihoods across the globe. In the Mediterranean region specifically, migration has always been an important source of economic prosperity not only for migrants but also for the countries that send and receive them. Given the importance of migration to the economic and social well-being of the region’s people, this report sheds light on the pandemic’s short- and long-term impacts on these migrant and nonmigrant communities. In so doing, it also explores whether mobility can still be expected to play a central role in the Mediterranean region in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Distinguishing between new challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis and preexisting issues exacerbated by the pandemic, the report not only proposes policies for

C ovid - 19 A nd m igr A tion in t H e m editerr A ne A n r egion 19

restarting migration safely amid the ongoing public health crisis but also recommends ways to better respond to future shocks and ensure the sustainability of migration flows. Whereas some of the proposed policy actions focus on challenges typically arising in the context of public health shocks, other actions represent suitable responses to a broader set of shocks, including those related to economic, conflict, or climaterelated factors.

The report draws on emerging data and literature to provide a complete picture of how the pandemic has affected mobility in the region. The crisis hit the whole world rapidly—affecting data collection processes, among other things, and highlighting the shortcomings of traditional data, which are usually available only with some time lags (ILO 2020). Especially in the first months of the pandemic, the lack of comprehensive and timely data challenged policy makers’ ability to make evidence-based decisions. This paucity of data has also limited researchers’ ability to shed light on the complex dynamics triggered by the COVID-19 crisis, especially in areas such as migration, which suffered from the limited availability of granular data even before the crisis (UN 2019). For this reason, this report uses numerous data sources, which, while not perfect on their own, can still point to useful emerging trends when jointly explored. The evidence presented in this report focuses as much as possible on findings in the extended Mediterranean region. When such evidence is not available, the report presents evidence from other countries, emphasizing its potential applicability to the extended Mediterranean region.

The report is structured into four chapters: • Chapter 1 next discusses mobility trends in the extended Mediterranean region, how the pandemic has spread across these countries and economies, and how the crisis has affected mobility flows. • Chapter 2, “The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migrants and Their Families,” focuses on the safety, health, and economic implications of the crisis for migrants and their families. It also documents the fluctuations in remittance flows—and their potential implications—to the sending communities during the pandemic. • Chapter 3, “Mobility-Related Implications of COVID-19 for Receiving Countries,” focuses on the implications of restricted mobility for the receiving countries and for the longer-term trends that are yet to fully manifest but are important to acknowledge and understand. More specifically, the chapter also discusses (a) the implications of the crisis for factors such as education and skills acquisition that are crucial for migrants and refugees’ long-term integration, and (b) the links between the health crisis and attitudes toward migration as well as their potential implications for future openness to migration. • Chapter 4, “Policy Directions,” summarizes the findings of the report; presents lessons from various governments’ COVID-19 responses to inform future efforts to address a broad set of shocks; and highlights the potential for new policy interventions to develop resilient mobility systems that can ensure the sustainability of migration in the years to come.