Securing government assistance for temporary migrants during the COVID-19 crisis: analysing the role of policy narratives

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments implemented social distancing requirements, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. These caused unprecedented disruptions, especially in industries that often rely heavily on the labour of temporary migrants. As a result, temporary migrants were particularly disadvantaged by measures to safeguard population health. We critically scrutinise government policies related to temporary migrants in Australia during the pandemic. The Australian Government provided financial safety nets to individuals and families who were citizens and permanent residents, while deliberately excluding temporary migrants from such support. In contrast, efforts were made at the state level to compensate for this hardship. We trace how the Victorian Government ultimately came to provide financial support for temporary migrants. The case highlights how the interests of precarious members of society can go from being ignored to receiving the attention necessary to produce a policy change to meet their needs. With its emphasis on the role policy narratives play in shaping outcomes for temporary migrants, the analytical approach utilised here could inform future studies of migrant treatment in other contexts as well as studies focusing on other vulnerable and politically marginalised members of society.