Virus May Make Attitudes to Immigration Healthier
The challenge will be ensuring that today’s gratitude doesn’t turn into tomorrow’s fear.
The crisis has caused Singapore to reassess conditions for migrant workers.
Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Bloomberg Opinion will be running a series of features by our columnists that consider the long-term consequences of the crisis. This column is part of a package on the impact that the spread of Covid-19 will have on immigration. For more, see Tracy Walsh on how to prevent coronavirus from decimating refugee camps, and the Bloomberg Editorial Board on the post-pandemic changes needed to fix U.S. immigration policy.
“It’s hard to find the words to express my debt,” the ordinarily garrulous British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said as he emerged from a close encounter with death last month. His main debt, Johnson significantly added, was to two nurses, “Jenny from New Zealand” and “Luis from Portugal,” who stayed at his bedside for 48 hours in an intensive care unit.