Cities have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 crisis. With over 105 000 cases to date, New York City accounts for almost a fifth of all cases in the US. Half of all cases in the Canadian province of Québec are located in the city of Montréal, with similar statistics across Canada. Population density, high levels of poverty and homelessness, and the local layering of restive global economies present distinctive health, social, and economic challenges in major urban centres.
In some ways, big cities are better positioned to meet these challenges than smaller cities and rural jurisdictions. They have more hospitals, medical professionals, technology, and economic clout. But resources are harder to deploy when human mobility is restricted by national and sub-national emergency management laws. The closure of public spaces, reduced public transportation, physical distancing, and targeted quarantines impede access to critical health and social services.
Fear, isolation, shifting borders, and lack of access to services are familiar experiences for precarious and non-status migrants. Lacking legal authorization to live and work within a country, they are the most vulnerable among us, forbidden from accessing public health, affordable housing, social assistance, labour rights, and education. This is so, even though they contribute to economies through labour, the payment of sales and property taxes, rent, and consumer spending. Social and legal exclusion renders them considerably more likely than the general population to experience serious, untreated physical and mental health issues, poverty, homelessness, economic exploitation, and interpersonal abuse.
