The Impact of Coronavirus on Foreign Workers

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Bloomberg Opinion will be running a series of features by our columnists that considers the long-term consequences of the crisis. This column is part of a package on immigration. For more, see Bobby Ghosh on the plight of Kerala, Tracy Walsh on preventing coronavirus from decimating refugee camps, Pankaj Mishra on changing global attitudes toward immigration, and the Bloomberg Editorial Board on fixing U.S. immigration policy.

The coronavirus pandemic has been devastating for foreign workers. In many countries, the living conditions of migrant labor have made this cohort especially vulnerable to the pathogen: Even in famously fastidious Singapore, where authorities acted aggressively to contain the outbreak, new cases were emerging from dormitories for migrant workers long after the city-state had eased lockdown restrictions.