What does the right to be mobile look like after the COVID-19 pandemic?

Being mobile in a global word is both a luxury and a privilege. For a long time, it has been accessible only to a part of the world’s population. However temporarily, Covid19 restrictions curtailed mobility for those with the most powerful passports in the world, including for location-independent workers called digital nomads. What does it mean concerning inequality when the mobility rights are restored again?

1731
Lukuaika: 3 min.

Author: Mari Toivanen

The most privileged and mobile citizens

“Can I have your passport, please?” This is the sentence that often accompanies the travels of privileged citizens across national borders. It also does not evoke stress or worry for being banned at the border, but instead can come with excitement of new travels and places to see. We all know that there is great inequality in who gets to be mobile and who does not – and for whatever reasons. 

In spring 2020, states installed a variety of different Covid19-related travel restrictions. Those accustomed to travel across national borders rather effortlessly have witnessed their mobility rights being curtailed. For instance, EU countries have erected border controls, banned the entry of citizens from high-risk countries and instigated quarantine requirements for those allowed to cross the border. The new virus variants mean that such restrictions can be a reality even beyond 2021. 

In fact, despite all the hoo-ha we hear about how we all now live in a global village, the states (surprisingly?) quickly resorted to rather protectionist measures by closing their borders and opting to secure vaccines for their national populations. Covid19 mobility restrictions – although temporarily in force – made the privileges and rights for certain nationals over others more visible and tangible. This was the case with digital nomads.

 

Digital nomads – choosing to be mobile or immobile

Photo by Mari Toivanen, from a coworking space, Thailand

Digital nomad is a trendy catch word for location-independent workers. Usually digital nomads are young professionals, whose work is not tied to a specific geographical location. In short, they work on the move, often changing locations a couple of times per year.

Digital nomadism has been a growing trend during the 2000s, with no specific statistics to estimate the number of those opting for such lifestyle mobility. The pandemic has provided a crash course on remote work, so to say, for several occupations. This means that we are bound to see more and more location-independent work in future, part of which can also lead to more international mobilities. 

Digital nomads are also often the holders of the most powerful passports that grant access – with an easily accessible visa or without one – to most countries in the world. As the Covid19 travel restrictions were put in place, some decided to stay put where they were, others travelled back to their country of citizenship and the rest looked for a place to stay that would not be too much affected by the pandemic and restrictions related to it. These decisions were naturally affected by the existing family ties, pandemic situation back home, health care insurance, and other factors. 

In other words, the Covid19 pandemic made visible the fact that privileges related to mobility concern both the right to be mobile as well as immobile. An example of the former can be seen in how some decided to return back home where the pandemic situation was better. The latter was evidenced by the fact that some decided to weather off the pandemic in isolated areas they already resided in, such as islands, that were less touched by the infection rates. 

 

What happens to mobility rights after the pandemic? 

In the EU, there has been intense pressure to restore citizens’ possibilities to cross national borders for leisure, work or study. One option for this has been a digital “vaccine passport” that would enable citizens who have been vaccinated or tested for the virus to travel internationally again. Brussels aims to have the vaccine passport operational by the end of June this year. 

What has been less discussed is how does this enforce the existing inequalities concerning mobility rights. Does the instauration of “vaccine passport” add yet another layer of inequality for those who cannot access vaccines, let alone digital vaccine passports? This is a particularly pertinent question as we have witnessed the rise of “vaccine-nationalism” and the unequal distribution of vaccines across the Global North and Global South countries. 

Another aspect that would be important to bring to discussion is that privileges not only concern the access to mobility but also the right to be immobile. We have already witnessed this within the national borders: those who cannot work remotely are potentially more exposed to the virus compared to those who can. This can be a particularly powerful privilege if and when we are to witness yet another global crisis – be it ecological, health-related or another kind. 

Indeed, the Covid19-pandemic can offer a way to discuss inequalities in the existing mobility regimes. It makes visible how they have the power to reproduce, enforce or alternatively undo inequalities related to mobilities and beyond. 

Mari Toivanen works as Academy Research Fellow at the Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki. She is currently working on a project titled Digital nomadism: Life-style mobilities, nation-state and the mobile subject (2020-2025).