They had hopes that most countries would ease restrictions and life could be back to normal, but it seems the pandemic is not over yet.
The United Nations, UN, estimated a decrease of nearly 2 million international migrants compared to the initially expected increase between mid-2019 and mid-2020. In 2020, permanent migration inflows to OECD countries were estimated to have fallen by more than 30 percent, and 2020 was a historical low for migration to OECD countries since 2003. Among all categories of permanent migration to OECD countries, partially available data show that family migration experienced the largest decline in 2020 by more than 35%.
Such a drop in migration inflows due to COVID-related restrictions has had demographic effects on countries dependent on migration for population growth. For example, national data for 2020 suggest that the population of Germany did not grow for the first time in the last decade due to a decline in immigration, according to the German Federal Statistics Office Report 2021. Currently, the country is facing a labor shortage in many sectors, and it aims to attract 400,000 skilled workers from abroad.
Germany
Gabriella Alves is a student expat from Brazil who lives in Heilbronn, Germany. She arrived in September last year, hoping that Covid-19 restrictions would be over. At first, as she was moving to Germany in February 2021, she resigned from her job. “I was 100% scheduled to move, and weeks before, the Brazil-Germany borders had been closed, I felt trapped and afraid of what might come and how serious things were getting. Except for wars, I never thought that a border could be closed in the middle of the 21st century”, she says. According to her, expats have been very frustrated with their incapacity to make plans, but she believes it is a risk they have to take. “Today, I understand that it was the best decision to have tried hard to go anyway and postponed it to September. It finally worked”.
Gabriela is from São Paulo, and during the pandemic in Brazil, she went over strict rules to avoid the virus contamination. “My university classes were online, bars and restaurants had time restrictions, usually until 11 pm. My social life became more present in the day rather than at night” she comments. When she arrived in Germany back in September, the Covid-19 rules had eased; there were parties, clubs, bars and in-person university classes with no time restrictions. This reality took Gabriella's expectations higher. “I thought it was a question of time, that measures would relax more and more. There were parties, but it was necessary to show the vaccination certificate and sometimes an antigenic test”.
However, things got a bit worse in December as restrictions returned again in Germany. Clubs were closed, and the curfew was implemented again. If expats were not fully vaccinated with at least two jabs or didn't have an antigenic test, they could not go to restaurants, shops and even travel by train. The controlling measures in Germany have been stricter, but the country provides, almost on every corner, a free quick test of Covid-19. According to Gabriella, it is a strange period to be an expat as country rules regarding Covid-19 are very unstable depending on the number of coronavirus cases. Currently, in Germany, the measures have eased again; there are no more time restrictions, but still, no matter where expats go, they have to show proof of vaccination with the booster or a negative test and at most places, except essential shops, the use of the ffp2 mask is mandatory. “Everywhere you enter, you have to show the certificate. Even public transport sometimes has inspections. Some of my classes were online back in December. At university, they were also checking the vaccination certificate in all classes”, Gabriella comments.
Reducing expectations
Expats from overseas leaving their countries from the global south and going towards the north usually believe that things are improving, and Covid-19 restrictions are easing. But that is not the reality they have been facing. Gabriela's situation in Germany is a common pattern for most expats who moved abroad during the pandemic. Worker expats have been in at least semi-home office, and students have been oscillating between virtual and in-person classes. At the University Complutense of Madrid, which has a great number of international students, classes could change totally to online mode all of a sudden if more than five students in a class tested positive to the Covid-19. Companies and education institutions didn't want to take the risk of ending up in the headlines for being a virus cluster.
Therefore, expats who are investing a lot of savings and time and have huge expectations have to be aware that there is no steady plan for moving abroad during these times. The coronavirus pandemic still has impacts at different levels of the moving abroad process, from issuing visas, taking the flight, arriving, settling down to living. Expats should take it easy on themselves, as this reality is not something they can control.
Mary Fristad, a psychologist at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, said that being patient during Covid-19 times is really hard. “Over the course of a lifetime, this will be a small chunk of it,” Fristad continued. “It's knowing we can only control what's in our control and to let the rest go”, she commented to the media. For the same press, another psychologist, Kevin Arnold, president of the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy on Columbus' Northwest Side, commented that "still now, our reality isn't going to be an explosion into life back as we knew it. … Allowing yourself to manage your anxiety will be the trick,” he said.
