Intimate strangers: Afghan students lived experience in the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Considering Afghan migrants’ presence in Iran as a temporary situation for over the past four decades, turned into a social problem which impact upon both migrants lived experiences and the host society. This article seeks to understand the implications of the Corona pandemic situation on the lived experience of Afghan students. The central hypothesis of this paper is that the outbreak of the Corona virus has had far-reaching effects on the educational, economic and social dimensions of migrants in general and Afghan students in particular. The most important negative effect of this social anxiety at the intersection with nationality, gender and class is enlargement of educational and gender inequalities in the daily lives of immigrants. On the other hand, the most important positive change resulting from this pandemic situation is the visibility of the presence of immigrants in the public opinion and policy arena in ​​Iran, which to some extent has facilitated the structural integration of immigrants. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 31 Afghans with experience of higher education in Iran. Equal access to educational services provided by the school, facilitation of student accommodation regulations and amendment of the executive regulations of the Law on Entry and Residence of Foreign Nationals, automatic renewal of immigrants' identity cards, renewal of immigrants’ work permits and the approval of executive regulations related to health insurance coverage have been among the most important changes in the Iranian government's policy towards the immigrant community during the Corona crisis.

Keywords

• covid-19 crisis
• integration
• afghan migrants
• shadow identity
• international students