Covid-19, Migration, and Racism in Australia: Key Challenges and Research Directions

The unique and complex social, health, and economic challenges arising from the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic have been subject to extensive discussion and deliberation in global scholarship and policy. In Australia, the adverse impacts of the pandemic have been especially pronounced for migrant, refugee, and multicultural communities; many of whom – pandemic or no pandemic – face substantial barriers to accessing essential health, economic and social resources, such as afford able health care, clear and culturally appropriate communication, and opportunities for social connection. For many people in these communities, access to these funda mental supports declined considerably during Covid-19 (Doherty 2020), while burgeoning levels of racism (including race-based discrimination and racialised violence) were reported across the country; particularly in the early stages of the pan demic (Elias et al. 2021, Kamp et al. 2022). The resulting social, health, and economic consequences are well documented in the Australian literature (Doery et al. 2023, Grant et al. 2023, Kamp et al. 2022). Furthermore, both local and global investigations of racism during previous major health crises offer compelling evidence of long-term impacts (Schlabach 2019, Shah 2001, Wenham et al. 2009); highlighting a pressing need to understand (and document) the ramifications of these issues beyond the Covid-19 context.