Regulating human movement in a global pandemic: ‘Essential Travel’ during COVID-19

Abstract Every government in the world introduced international travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the most part, these restrictions did not take the form of blanket entry bans, but rather acted as human selection mechanisms, with states refusing entry to most people while granting dedicated exemptions to others. This article addresses two interconnected questions: Who was granted entry, and on what basis? Drawing on new data capturing entry bans and selective exemptions in 212 countries and territories worldwide, we interrogate the concept of ‘essential travel’ that emerged in the early phase of the pandemic. We find that during the COVID-19 pandemic, states granted exemptions for up to seventeen categories of person, which we use to build a novel typology of the ‘grounds of entry’ applicable in times of emergency: (1) pre-existing ties, (2) instrumental value, and (3) international protection. By analysing the frequency of the seventeen ‘essential travel’ categories, we find that these grounds were prioritised differently, with much greater emphasis on pre-existing ties than on international protection. This indicates that during the pandemic, states prioritised the needs of ‘their own’, particularly their nationals, over those of vulnerable populations. The article thus highlights both the resilience of nationality and the fragility of asylum as bases for cross-border movement in times of global (health) crisis.