Health Policies for Addressing COVID-19 among Migrant Worker Populations: Case Studies of Singapore, Germany, and South Korea

นโยบายสุขภาพเพื่อรับมือโควิด-19 ในกลุ่มแรงงานข้ามชาติ : กรณีศึกษาสิงคโปร์ เยอรมนี และเกาหลีใต้

Abstract

The global outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 posed a significant public health challenge for governments worldwide. Migrant workers constituted a high-risk group disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, facing issues such as discrimination, employment and housing insecurity, restricted mobility, and inadequate access to state welfare provisions. This study aimed to comparatively examine the policies adopted for managing migrant worker populations in Singapore, South Korea, and Germany during the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak through documentary research. The findings revealed that countries with robust labor laws, health policies, and social security systems, such as Germany, required minimal additional special measures. In contrast, nations like Singapore, where existing legal frameworks lacked comprehensive coverage for migrant workers, had to increasingly rely on ad-hoc welfare measures, involving private sectors that economically benefited from their labor forces in sharing the financial burden. South Korea's approach demonstrated that regularizing the status of undocumented migrant workers enhanced disease control efficacy and exemplified timely crisis-responsive management of migrant worker populations.