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Category: Research

How is COVID-19 affecting Kent’s migrant population?

In the latest installment of our blog series  “The Impact of COVID-19 on Kent and Medway”, Dr Laura Cashman reflects on the implications for migrants living in Kent and Medway.

Migrants have been in the news a lot this week. The Immigration Bill to introduce a new points-based system passed its second reading in Parliament, signalling the government’s intention to press ahead with its populist plans to make immigration more difficult and expensive. On the other hand, following a public outcry, the government was forced to exempt migrant NHS and care workers from the NHS Surcharge and extend the NHS Coronavirus Bereavement Scheme to support families of low paid migrant workers. It is clear that the politics around so-called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ migration will not go away any time soon and the fallout from COVID-19 will certainly play a role in how the debates are shaped.

Capitalism After Covid-19

What implications does COVID-19 have for the future of capitalism? In the first of a series of blog posts, Professor David Bates suggests that the current COVID-19 shock is likely to produce a new and increasingly exploitative form of ‘self-regulatory’ capitalism; yet it may also open up a new line of questioning against the current global economic status quo, in which the balance between employers and employees starts to be reset. 

Territorial Politics, Coronavirus and The UK: Cooperation amidst Crisis

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to dominate political debate, Dr Paul Anderson examines the intergovernmental interaction between the different governments in the UK, and argues that while tensions may now be appearing concerning lock-down strategies, intergovernmental relations have generally proceeded in the spirit of cooperation with the governments closely working together. 

Coronavirus and the Art of Counting

Data and hard facts are increasingly disputed by the media and the government during the coronavirus crisis. Dr Soeren Keil reflects on the never-ending debates about the benefits of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and argues that too narrow a focus on numbers can be dangerous from both scientific and political political perspectives.

Revisiting Federalism and Decentralisation in the Age of Coronavirus

In the last two weeks, we have seen a dramatic escalation of the coronavirus crisis, particularly in Europe and more recently in the United States. There are also growing worries about the spread of the virus in developing countries, and particularly in parts of the world, which are known for poor health care provisions and their inefficient resilience against wider health crises.

However, when comparing the spread of the virus, and the number of deaths in several countries, some interesting patterns emerge.