Nuancing COVID-19 pandemic experiences of vulnerable people: The case of (ir)regular Filipino migrants in Paris

Abstract

This article examines the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on regular and irregular Filipino migrants working in the service sector in Paris. Drawing from the authors’ analysis of the literature on migrants in the context of the pandemic, the French state’s sanitary and social measures, and a set of 28 semi-structured interviews with Filipino migrants, it shows that these migrants’ experiences converge and diverge at some points. Irregular Filipino migrants experienced the pandemic’s economic and emotional blows stronger than their regular migrant counterparts due to their unstable work situation and migration status intersecting with other factors at the micro, meso and macro levels of their lives. Interestingly, regular and irregular migrants shared some positive experiences of the pandemic, nuancing the conventional understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of vulnerable populations as mainly negative.