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Every government in the world introduced restrictions to human mobility - that is, the movement of persons across and within state borders - in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such restrictions thus constituted a global phenomenon, but they were by no means globally uniform; rather, they varied significantly between and within states, as well as over time. This research note presents different data sources for studying the drivers and outcomes of mobility restrictions, highlighting specific ways in which the data can be used. We begin by surveying seven new databases capturing various aspects of the regulation of human movement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing inspiration from research on previous pandemics, we then outline five possible research avenues prompted by these data. We suggest that explaining the causes and consequences of such restrictions, as well as the differences between them, can significantly advance research on the governance of mobility, migration, and citizenship., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

The study of international migration and responses to it has experienced rapid growth in the last three decades: an institutionalisation of migration studies. This paper identifies and specifies infrastructural and semantic elements of institutionalisation by establishing a global Directory of Migration Research Institutions identifying 282 institutes focused on migration research that were operative between 1945 and 2020. We observe a clear geographical concentration in the Americas and Europe and find that most institutes are in countries with higher economic development (GDP) and net immigration (not emigration). Using this evidence, we suggest that the institutionalisation of migration studies is driven by concerns and ideas produced in high-income 'destination' countries. We thus show that uneven knowledge production in migration studies is not only caused by exclusive categories, language, or journal policies, but also by a structural problem at an earlier stage: because of fewer resources invested in the creation of institutionalised academic knowledge structures, lower income countries have fewer possibilities to shape the semantic features of the field of migration studies, by which we mean the identification of subjects of interest, concepts, narratives, and priorities., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© The Author(s) 2023.)

Objective: Understand the COVID-19-related health literacy of socioeconomically vulnerable migrant groups. Methods: We conducted a survey available in 8 languages among 2,354 members of the target population in Switzerland in 2020. We measured health literacy in four dimensions (finding, understanding, evaluating and applying health information) and assessed adherence to official recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Most migrants felt well informed about the pandemic. Using an extended index of health literacy, we found a moderate correlation ( r = -0.28 [-0.24, -0.32]) between COVID-19-related health literacy and socioeconomic vulnerability. The most socioeconomically vulnerable migrants tended to have more difficulty finding and understanding health information about COVID-19 and adhered more to unscientific theses that were not part of the official communication. Conclusion: Special communication efforts by public health authorities have reached most migrants, but socioeconomic vulnerability can be a barrier to taking precautions., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ruedin, Probst, Wanner, Efionayi-Mäder and Bodenmann.)

This research note introduces a new global dataset, the Citizenship, Migration and Mobility in a Pandemic (CMMP). The dataset features systematic information on border closures and domestic lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in 211 countries and territories worldwide from 1 March to 1 June 2020. It documents the evolution of the types and scope of international travel bans and exceptions to them, as well as internal measures including limitations of non-essential movement and curfews in 27 countries. CMMP can be used to study causes and effects of policy restrictions to migration and mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The dataset is available through Cadmus and will be regularly updated until the last pandemic-related restriction has been lifted or become long-term., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.