BEYOND THE PANDEMIC: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT COVID-19 RESPONSES FOR MIGRANT WORKER HEALTH IN SINGAPORE AND THE UNITED STATES

As high-income countries in the Global North increasingly depend on guest worker programs to sustain their growth, the well-being of migrant workers has become a more critical issue. The transient nature of migrant workers who move between countries for long periods of time creates a unique challenge in ensuring their health. In 2020, Covid-19 began to spread in many countries, disproportionately affecting migrant workers and other vulnerable populations. Government responses varied across the world, and the aftermath of the pandemic has provided valuable lessons in how outbreaks in migrant worker populations could be better handled. This research explored some of these lessons in Singapore and the United States, two high-income countries that rely on guest worker programs, through an analysis of government responses during the pandemic and changes in the health policy landscape afterwards. To compare, contrast, and synthesize the challenges in protecting migrant workers during the pandemic, this paper provides an analysis of 10 in-depth interviews with experts in both countries as well as a content analysis of government, nonprofit, and media sources. Coding and thematic analysis revealed the challenges migrant workers experienced during Covid-19, which were coded as fear, essential worker status, mental health, housing, and legality. Three significant themes surfaced in the data: economic forces, the rights of migrant workers, and exclusion from health policy. Finally, this paper concludes with recommendations on creating more inclusive health systems for migrant workers in an aim to improve national and global health security. This research reveals a clearer picture of the migrant worker health policy landscape following the pandemic, revealing the gaps in migrant worker health to inform future capacity-building policies.