COVID-19, vaccine diplomacy, and migrant workers

Jannatul Ferdous and Ahsan Ullah Akm

Chapter 20 in Handbook of Research on Migration, COVID-19 and Cities, 2025, pp 374-385 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The crux of diplomacy is collaboration over competition. It resolves contentious issues, such as complex disagreements between countries. However, this is usually only when resources are scarce. Vaccines were the world's best hope for stopping the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019. Global public health organisations hoped the crisis would spur more countries to collaborate in fighting against COVID-19. The hope that advanced economies would embrace “vaccine diplomacy” was vital to this plan. However, hegemonic ambition has politicised the vaccine's production, marketing, and distribution. Vaccine-producing countries and import-dependent countries are racing to win the diplomatic battle. Countries manufacturing vaccines must gain hegemony, while countries relying on imports must win to obtain the vaccine. This has led to widespread prejudice in vaccine distribution where migrants are unlikely to receive their immunisations on time. This chapter analyses the long-running debate over intellectual property rights and the patenting of life-saving vaccines.

Keywords: City Diplomacy; Migrants; Diplomacy; Urban; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035301225
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