REPORTS

COVID-19 has been a great disrupter of international migration and a social and economic disaster for migrants. Most research attention has focused on the challenges faced by migrants and refugees in destination countries and on return to countries of origin during successive waves of the pandemic. While the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on food security has attracted more attention, most of this research has focused either on national food insecurity or the food insecurity of small samples of rural households. The findings in this report come from a household survey conducted by SAMP in mid-2021. The report argues that years of crisis living in a hyperinflationary environment in Zimbabwe left many households in a pre-pandemic state of food insecurity and vulnerable to the pandemic shock. At the same time, the pandemic reduced the ability of Zimbabwean migrant households in South Africa to assist family back in Zimbabwe. As COVID-19 began to bite, for example, there was increased pressure on migrant households in South Africa to remit more and more often. While most did continue to remit in the first year of the pandemic, their own parlous situation meant that they had to reduce their remittances. Many had lost employment and had a reduction in income, primarily because they worked in sectors that were hard hit by the pandemic, including domestic work, the services and tourist industry, and the informal sector. Although most were working again by the time of the survey, the impact was still being felt, nowhere more so than in household food insecurity. Only 5% of the female-headed households were completely food secure. In the face of rising food prices, most were eating less and consuming cheaper foods with a drop in dietary diversity. As well as contributing to greater awareness of the negative impacts of COVID-19 on migrants and refugees in Southern Africa, this report contributes to the more general discussion on pandemic precarity. First, it applies the concept of pandemic precarity to draw attention to pre-existing forms of socioeconomic insecurity and inequality among migrant households that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 shocks and stressors. Second, it recognizes that migrant households have translocal householding commitments and obligations in their home countries. In the context of COVID-19, both have been negatively affected and need to be considered together to assess the full impact on food security. Finally, the report suggests that female migrants and female-headed households were particularly vulnerable to pandemic impacts. By adopting a gender lens, the report demonstrates that pandemic precarity was a major challenge for female migrants and their dependants. The negative implications of pandemic precarity for translocal households stretched between two or more countries are also clear from this analysis.