*7.1. Problematizing Migrant Communities inside and outside The Netherlands through COVID-19*

Overall, out of 134 documents, 42 contained one or multiple expression(s) which are indicative of governing migration through COVID-19.<sup>8</sup> As mentioned in the introduction, the narrative that migrant populations around the globe carry a wide array of communicable diseases and, therefore, pose a threat to public health in destination communities, is a strong one and tends to resurface in moments of crisis. This narrative, in which migrants

are perceived as carriers of disease, only comes up occasionally in the 2020 political discourse. The rhetoric of governing migration *through* COVID-19 is more diverse than we initially expected; it also manifests through discussions on border policies, humanitarian aid for refugee camps, economic hardship, and governmental compensations for overdue asylum processes during COVID-19.

To start with the narrative that migrants could bring and spread COVID-19, there are but a few examples of this in political discourse. For example, in response to several questions in parliament, the Ministry of Justice and Security declares that "approximately fifty aliens have been denied entrance into The Netherlands to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 since 19 March 2020".<sup>9</sup> In this example, COVID-19 seems to justify the specific rejection of aliens. Another example relates to labor migrants. The Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport expresses the following during a debate about COVID-19 outbreaks in workplaces:

"Is it possible to test more goal oriented? The answer to that question is "yes". I mentioned slaughter houses as one of the examples of which you know: there are many labor migrants there. Perhaps the cooling conditions, the working conditions, also play a role (...)"<sup>10</sup>

This example is perhaps more subtle in its assumption that labor migrants would spread COVID-19. Nonetheless, the Minister appears to assume that the presence of labor migrants is among the factors that led to an outbreak in slaughterhouses. Only on second thought does he seems to consider the labor conditions.

More commonly, governing migration through COVID-19 manifests in broader discussions. For example, in debates on border policies, two political parties stand out in their appeal to governing migration through COVID-19, namely, the Party for Freedom (PVV) and the Forum for Democracy (FvD). These parties are respectively characterized as nationalist right-wing populist and conservative right-wing populist; both are Eurosceptic and anti-immigration. These parties have urged the current Dutch governmen<sup>t</sup> to close the borders, similar to some other member states of the European Union. To illustrate their stances, a member of PVV expresses the following during a parliamentary debate:

"Because other countries have closed their borders due to corona measures, their asylum influx has almost completely dried up. With 270 asylum migrants in April, the lowest number in at least twenty years, there lies a unique opportunity to prevent the asylum influx from increasing again."<sup>11</sup>

Here, it is clear that COVID-19 is treated as a legitimation to close the Dutch borders, with the specific aim of averting migrants. At the same time, it is worth highlighting that the governmen<sup>t</sup> itself explicitly counters this form of governing migration through COVID-19. The governmen<sup>t</sup> frequently expressed its discontent regarding the reintroduction of internal border controls in the European Union, and writes:

"(...) the introduction of internal border control to counter the influx of asylum into The Netherlands is not the government's preference."<sup>12</sup>

Besides border policies, we have identified some mild expressions of governing migration through COVID-19 in debates surrounding the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Services (IND). This organization is responsible for asylum processes, and is legally required to process any request within six months. If this term is exceeded, the Dutch governmen<sup>t</sup> is obliged to financially compensate asylum seekers in the form of penalty payments. While the IND deals with structural backlogs, and as COVID-19 has only amplified rather than caused the backlogs, the costs of these payments has exceeded 70 million euros. In light of this, a temporary amendment of the law has been approved, as a result of which the Dutch governmen<sup>t</sup> is no longer required to pay compensation for overdue asylum processes. While this suspension is not a direct result of COVID-19, it is at least remarkable that asylum seekers and migrants are being cut off financially for overdue governmental work within the timeframe of this pandemic. In other words, COVID-19 seems to have facilitated momentum to cut back on asylum processes.

A final context in which governing migration through COVID-19 manifests is that of economic hardship in combination with insufficient public healthcare facilities and supplies. Regarding migrant communities outside The Netherlands, the scarcity of medical supplies is an argumen<sup>t</sup> to refrain from humanitarian aid for refugee camps. This argumen<sup>t</sup> exclusively comes from party members of PVV and FvD. As a member of PVV expresses it:

"I would like to object to the fact that we will be sending some 15,000 relief goods to Greek islands (...) whilst the number of corona cases in The Netherlands has doubled in comparison to Tuesday. Then we are not going to send relief supplies to Greece that we desperately need for our own peoples here, are we? Have we gone completely crazy?".<sup>13</sup>

With regard to migrant communities inside The Netherlands, these too are occasionally held accountable for inadequate medical care. Another member of PVV contends:

"If we had not fired 75,000 healthcare workers, if billions had not been spent on asylum seekers, and if that money had instead been invested in healthcare, then the crisis—really—would have been smaller."<sup>14</sup>

### *7.2. Problematizing the Impact of COVID-19 on Migrant Communities within and outside The Netherlands*

While varying expressions of governing migration *through* COVID-19 are present in political discourse, there are just as many documents in which the specific vulnerabilities of migrant communities inside and outside The Netherlands are stressed. Out of 134 documents, 55 documents contain one or multiple expression(s) which stress the impact of COVID-19 on migrant communities.<sup>15</sup> Members of the political party DENK have been particularly vocal about this:

"The virus does not discriminate. We can all ge<sup>t</sup> it and it is impossible to predict what the effects will be. However, certain groups suffer more than others. While one Dutch person wonders whether there is a food package left at the food bank, another is upset, because he cannot drink his beer in the village café. And there is a clear difference in consequences for the elderly and the young, people with and without work, and people with and without a migration background. For example, statistics indicate that the excess mortality among people with a migration background is 48%, and without 38%."<sup>16</sup>

DENK has a left-wing political orientation, and statements like this are broadly shared as well as put forward by parties with left-wing and centrist political orientations. Similarly, several outbreaks of COVID-19 among labor migrants in The Netherlands have resulted in an increase in governmental support. While these migrants have sometimes been accused of disobedience in respect of the measures against COVID-19, the pandemic has mostly shed light on their poor working and living conditions. Consequently, a task force was set up for the protection of labor migrants in May 2020. The objective of this was to mitigate outbreaks of COVID-19, as well as to strengthen the position of labor migrants in the long term.<sup>17</sup>

With regard to migrant communities outside of The Netherlands, we can see that while COVID-19 is used to restrict humanitarian aid for refugee camps, the reverse is also true; COVID-19 is also cited as a reason to increase humanitarian aid flows for refugee camps. For example:

"We still see that all over the world, vulnerable refugee children are suffering from the corona crisis in refugee camps. Who cares for them?"<sup>18</sup>

### *7.3. Problematizing Migrants for Other Things than COVID-19*

Having elaborated on our results in relation to COVID-19, we will now turn to some more general observations on the ways in which migrants are represented in political discourse. First of all, governing migration through COVID-19 is merely one of the ways in which governing through migration manifests. Migrants are also linked to, if not blamed for, a lack of affordable housing in The Netherlands and carbon dioxide emission in relation to climate change. Out of 134 documents, 11 contain one or multiple expression(s) of this.<sup>19</sup> To start with affordable housing, a quote by a member of PVV is quite illustrative of this rhetoric:

"Immigration swiftly increases the housing shortage; construction workers cannot compete with the enormous growth of immigrants."<sup>20</sup>

This rhetoric belongs to the domain of governing through migration because it falsely implies a causal link between housing shortages and immigration. In a similar vein, members of FvD argue that the admittance of migrants leads to higher carbon dioxide emissions, leading to an overall intensification of climate change.<sup>21</sup>

### *7.4. Not Problematizing the Connection between Migration and Crime*

Since PVV and FvD are generally considered populist parties, their engagemen<sup>t</sup> in these forms of governing through migration is not too surprising. More remarkable is the frequency with which migration and migrants are linked to crime by a wide array of political parties (including liberal, socialist, Orthodox–Calvinist and Christian–democratic ones). Out of 134 documents, 35 contain one or multiple expression(s) of crimmigration.<sup>22</sup> Currently, the biggest party in The Netherlands is a liberal one: the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). After PVV and FvD, this party most regularly links migration to crime. For example, when a member of PVV requested a plenary debate between governmen<sup>t</sup> and parliament to discuss high crime rates among asylum seekers, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice and Security (VVD) shared his concerns. This Secretary of State, who is responsible for the implementation of migration policies, has responded to this by '*lik-op-stuk-beleid*', meaning that minor violations and incidents among asylum seekers are immediately punished. Such punishments come in the form of withholding living allowances, transfer to high-surveillance locations, and restraining orders.<sup>23</sup> During this same debate, the Secretary of State concludes:

"The figures in this incident overview are indeed worrying and nuisance in any form is unacceptable. They are alarming messages indeed. I agree with Mister Hiddema [member of FvD, NI] on that. But at the same time, we must see the following. Like Mister Emiel van Dijk [member of PVV, NI] has put forward, we would prefer to close the borders and not let them in here. But we have an asylum system and that means that ... We are a constitutional state: anyone who comes here to ask for asylum, will ge<sup>t</sup> a procedure. (...) We do our utmost to ensure that this runs as smoothly as possible, that no shoplifting takes place and that indeed all other organizations work well together to ensure that nuisance is limited as much as possible."<sup>24</sup>

Besides this, crime rates are also linked to the presence of migrant communities. The following expressions are examples of this; both come from the Reformed Political Party (SGP), which is a conservative Orthodox–Calvinist party.

"(...) is the urban unrest [referring to drug-related crime, NI] not also an integration problem?"<sup>25</sup>

"Noting that crime figures continue to show a worrying overrepresentation of people with a non-Western migration background; calls on the governmen<sup>t</sup> to recognize and investigate this problem and to develop a targeted approach to reduce crime in these groups as well as in total."<sup>26</sup>
