A scientific paper on the impact of nationalism on migration management and border closures during the Covid-19 epidemic

The Peace Institute researcher Veronika Bajt has published a new scientific article in the academic journal ISH Monitor, The Virus of Fear: Nationalism and Pandemic Society. In the article, she analyses the government measures taken in Slovenia since the emergence of the coronavirus disease Covid-19, which concern the crossing of national borders, and parallels them with some historical examples of addressing infectious diseases through quarantines and border closures. The analysis shows the strengthening of exclusionary nationalisms, which affect already marginalised social groups, especially migrant populations or so-called third-country nationals. The author compares the findings with existing international research that confirms the global rise of nationalism, racism and hate speech in connection with the outbreak of the Covid-19. External enemies, or dangerous Others, are far from being concepts that we associate only with history, as they also describe the construction of strategies for coping with the challenges of modernity.

This article is based on research conducted within the framework of the basic research project “Hate Speech in Contemporary Conceptualisations of Nationalism, Racism, Gender and Migration” and within the framework of the research programme of the Peace Institute (both funded by the Slovenian Research Agency).