Page 120 - IJPS-10-3

International Journal of

Population Studies

COMMENTARY
COVID-19 and the precarious low-skilled

workforce in the European Union: Time to call
the shots?

Senyo Dotsey*

Department of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Political, Economic and Social Sciences,
University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Abstract

This commentary highlights the critical role of low-skilled workers who are often
considered unwanted populations within the European Union (EU) migration system
that privileges high-skilled migrants, while neglecting the existence of low-skilled
migrants, creating unfavorable job conditions for low-skilled migrants despite their
considerable contributions to EU economies. Unfortunately, this wrenching problem
became evident during the pandemic. While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all
segments of the population to varying degrees in the EU, the migrant populations
were adversely affected in many aspects. Specifically, low-skilled migrants are the
most vulnerable to the pandemic’s secondary effects, due to multiple forms of
vulnerability, risk, exploitation, and precarity shaped by their intersectional identities
and membership in other marginalized groups. It has been argued that the roles
of low-skilled migrants should be considered when appraising their impact and
developing labor migration policies. This commentary concludes by proffering some
*Corresponding author:
Senyo Dotsey recommendations for the EU governing entities in formulating schemes to ensure
(senyo.dotsey@unimi.it) the inclusion of low-skilled migrant workforce into the public policy and labor
migration system.
Citation: Dotsey, S. (2024).
COVID-19 and the precarious low-
skilled workforce in the European
Union: Time to call the shots? Keywords: COVID-19; Low-skilled workforce; Migration policy
International Journal of Population
Studies, 10(3): 114-120.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2165
Received: November 3, 2023 1. Introduction
Accepted: February 6, 2024 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has tremendous, negative
Published Online: May 8, 2024 repercussion on the global scale, including loss of life (6,985,278 deaths and 772,052,752
confirmed cases as of November 30, 2023) (WHO, 2023), disruption of the global
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article production chain supply, curtailed mobility, and a deepening economic crisis (Dotsey,
distributed under the terms of the 2023; Jones et al., 2021). The adverse effect of the pandemic has also been extended to the
Creative Commons Attribution global labor force, which has hardly recovered since the 2008 global economic downturn,
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, and an ongoing pandemic coupled with a global economic crisis has significantly added
provided the original work is to the challenges facing the current labor force. Workers in precarious employment,
properly cited. both in formal and informal positions, are among those most impacted by the
Publisher’s Note: AccScience pandemic’s secondary effects (Matilla-Santander et al., 2021). Within this framework,
Publishing remains neutral with migrant workers are often the hardest hit during economic downturns, as they are likely
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional the first to lose their jobs and are mostly excluded from social welfare systems (Jones
affiliations. et al., 2021; WFP-IOM, 2020). Of course, some citizens or non-migrants may also be

Volume 10 Issue 3 (2024) 114 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2165