Countries’ policy responses

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Figure O.8 ICT availability at home for 15-year-old students in selected Mediterranean countries, 2018

Index of availability 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

France Greece Israel

Italy Slovenia Native-born Foreign-born Spain

Source: organisation for economic Co-operation and development (oeCd) Programme for international student Assessment (PisA) 2018 database (https://www.oecd.org/pisa/data/2018database/). Note: the “native-born” group does not include second-generation immigrants. the results do not differ significantly when second-generation immigrants are included in the “native-born” group. the gold error bars indicate the standard error. the “index of availability” is a sum of how many of 10 specified information and communication technology (iCt) devices or connections the student has available at home. Foreign-born students with at least one native-born parent are also excluded from the analysis.

Openness to migration, and ultimately integration, also could be limited by the rising adverse sentiments toward migrants. An emerging number of studies point to the link between COVID-19 and antiforeign sentiments. Several studies find that public opinion toward immigrants turned more negative and that exclusionary attitudes increased (Lu and Sheng 2020; Ratha et al. 2021; Yamagata, Teraguchi, and Miura 2021). However, the important role played by migrants in responding to the crisis may also positively affect attitudes toward migration, since crises do not inevitably mean that natives’ views will worsen (Dennison and Geddes 2020). Nonetheless, if misinformation is not addressed and if migration is perceived as an even more salient issue after the pandemic, negative attitudes could pose major challenges to migrants’ integration in the long term.

Countries and economies in the extended Mediterranean region adapted their migration systems to better manage migration as new challenges emerged during the global public health crisis. Mobility restrictions increased risks for people on the move. Worker shortages threatened economic recovery. Concentrated COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant workers increased the risk of transmission to local populations. As these different challenges emerged, Mediterranean and GCC countries and economies responded with varying degrees of success.