COVID-19, Systemic Racism, and Immigrant Communities
October 2022: We launched this site in October 2020 and the past two years have only reaffirmed what we already knew—that communities of color persistently face stark social and economic inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic brought these realities to the forefront, as immigrants, who are often people of color, continued to face higher rates of disease and death, while also comprising a larger share of the “essential” workforce that sustained the state while more privileged workers stayed home, as shown by the charts below. In addition, the digital divide became even more stark, as some young students sat outside of businesses to log into classrooms and seniors experienced isolation and challenges accessing services, as well as information online. Researchers also found that Californians living in neighborhoods already impacted by higher levels of pollution—and more likely to be Latinx and low-income—were at higher risk for COVID-19 infections. At the same time, immigrants also composed a large share of those impacted by pandemic unemployment and those that had limited access to relief.
Despite this challenging landscape, after immigrants and advocates implored the state to do more, California provided relief to some immigrants. Further, mutual aid efforts and community organizations statewide stepped up and continue to provide essential services, including connecting immigrant families to safety net programs. First-of-its kind efforts such as the California Immigrant Resilience Fund, have also now established the infrastructure for the state to quickly mobilize to respond to future crises. The data and resources on this page provide insight on how California’s immigrants were, and continue to be, impacted by this global crisis, pointing to the work that lies ahead to ensure a safe, healthy, and equitable future for all.
Resources:
- California Immigrant Resilience Fund
- COVID-19: Mapping vulnerable populations in California
- COVID-19 Series: Resources, Data, and Analysis for California
- Immigrants Are LA Campaign
- Immigrant Bail Funds
- Mapping Immigrants at Risk for COVID-19 and Access to Healthcare
- National Immigrant Law Center: COVID-19 Crisis and Consequences
- New American Economy: Immigration and COVID-19
- 805 UndocuFund
Reports:
- Immigrant Families in California Faced Barriers Accessing Safety Net Programs in 2021, but Community Organizations Helped Many Enroll
- COVID-19’s Effects on U.S. Immigration and Immigrant Communities, Two Years On
- State of Immigrants in Los Angeles 2022
- California’s Labor Market in the Time of COVID-19
- CA 100: The Future of Immigrant Integration Policy and Scenario Report
- Essential Stories: Black Worker COVID-19 Economic Health Impact Survey
- Experts in their Fields: Contributions and Realities of Indigenous Campesinos in California During COVID-19
- COVID-19 and Domestic Workers
- Women Putting in Work: The Economic Self-Determination of Women and Girls in Post-COVID Los Angeles County
- The Survivors: Stories of People Released from ICE Detention During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Californians Speak: Achieving Equity in COVID-19 Vaccination
- The (in)visible victims of disaster: Understanding the vulnerability of undocumented Latino/a and indigenous immigrants
- No Going Back: Together for an Equitable and Inclusive Los Angeles
- Undocumented During COVID-19: Essential for the Economy but Excluded from Relief
- Reimagined Recovery: Black Workers, the Public Sector, and COVID-19
- Front-line Essential Jobs in California: A Profile of Job and Worker Characteristics
- A Profile of Frontline Workers in the Bay Area
- How Race, Class, and Place Fuel a Pandemic
- LA County COVID vulnerabilities analysis
Articles:
- Tracking Coronavirus Vaccinations in California
- California’s COVID-19 case count tops 10 million. This is how the latest surge is trending
- Assistance Denied: Examining California’s Emergency Rental Relief Program in the Bay Area
- COVID pulls down Latino, Black, Asian life expectancy more than whites, study says
- Immigration Detention Facility Near Empty in California
- ‘An epidemic of hate’: Anti-Asian hate crimes in California jumped 177% in 2021
- ‘An Enormous Disabling Event’: Long COVID could have inequitable impact on Californians
- Health in California Two Years Into the Pandemic
- Two Years Into the Pandemic, Americans Inch Closer to a New Normal
- With pandemic protections gone, essential workers face omicron alone
- COVID-19 has roared back in California. Essential worker protections have not.
- New research sheds light on COVID-19 inequities in California
- ICE Is Detaining More Immigrants. COVID is Putting Them in Danger
- How the American Rescue Plan Can Support Immigrant Communities
- Centering Undocumented Californians and Migrants in Disaster Resilience
- New map shows deep inequities in L.A.’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout
- New California Vaccine Data Shows Racial Inequities in Distribution
- Asian Americans in San Francisco are dying at alarming rates from COVID-19: Racism is to blame
- Border Report: New Challenges for Day Laborers
- ‘I was naive to think this couldn’t touch my family’: Pacific Islanders hit hard by the coronavirus
- As Covid-19 cases spike, an unprecedented alliance emerges to protect California farmworkers
- How 'abolish ICE' helped bring abolitionist ideas into the mainstream
- 13 Weeks, 832 Reports: COVID-19-Related Hate Against California’s Asian Americans Continues
- The virus and the vulnerable: Latino children suffer higher rates of COVID-19
- ‘We can’t take a break’: Advocates continue to push for release of Adelanto’s immigrant detainees amid COVID-19
- ICE and CBP Agents Were Deployed at Black Lives Matter Protests
- ‘So much worse than I ever thought it would be’: Virus cases skyrocketing among Latinos
- He Went to a Black Lives Matter Protest in Phoenix—and Ended Up in ICE Custody
- ‘We can’t prevent it’: Farmworkers paid low wages fear coronavirus spread in crowded housing
- Close Quarters: California’s overcrowded homes fuel spread of coronavirus among workers
- The undocumented restaurant workers who fed us are being forgotten. This is their struggle
- Track us better: Overlooked Pacific Islanders hit hard by coronavirus
- Coping with the Crisis: Immigrant Families Face ‘el Coronavirus’ and the Broken System That Has Left Them So Vulnerable
- Black Lives Matter Co-Founder: The Immigration Challenge No One Is Talking About