“The Visa Situation Was Far More Stressful Than COVID”: State‐Constructed Vulnerability and the COVID‐19 Pandemic Among Temporary Migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT This study explores the experiences of temporary migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand during the COVID‐19 pandemic, situating their narratives within broader regional and global patterns of mobility restriction and migrant precarity. Drawing on 85 in‐depth interviews with participants from linguistic minority backgrounds in Christchurch—including 29 temporary migrant visa holders—we investigate how visa‐related insecurity, family separation, restricted mobility and exclusion from government support systems compounded pre‐existing structural vulnerabilities. While New Zealand's pandemic responses were internationally commended, our findings show that its migration and border policies disproportionately disadvantaged temporary migrants, many of whom were also ‘essential workers’ in key industries. Participants frequently described visa precarity as more distressing than the threat of the virus itself, exposing how state policies unevenly distributed rights and protections among those expected to fulfill the same public health responsibilities. Building on the concept of ‘state‐constructed vulnerability’, this paper demonstrates how policy decisions, institutional neglect and migration governance produced and intensified migrant precarity during the pandemic. These vulnerabilities intersected with factors such as race, language, class and employment dependence. We also draw on scholarship on 'differential inclusion' to demonstrate how temporary migrants were simultaneously indispensable and marginalized, incorporated economically while excluded from rights, mobility and security. We argue for more equitable and rights‐based migration policies that acknowledge temporary migrants' social realities and ensure their protection and support in both pandemic and non‐pandemic contexts.