On the Coattails of globalization: migration, migrants and COVID-19 in Asia Diana Suhardiman a , Jonathan Rigg b , Marcel Bandur c , Melissa Marschke d , Michelle Ann Miller c , Noudsavanh Pheuangsavanh e , Mayvong Sayatham e and David Taylor f a International Water Management Institute, Vientiane, Lao PDR; b School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK; c Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; d School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; e Mekong School Graduate, Vientiane, Lao PDR; f Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore ABSTRACT Positioning migrants as quintessential globalisation subjects, this paper reveals how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the ambivalent positioning of migration as a pathway for human development. Drawing on interviews with international and domestic labour migrants from Bangladesh, India, Laos and Myanmar working in Laos, Myanmar, China, Singapore and Thailand, the paper explores the vulnerabilities, challenges and opportunities that have come with migration and how these have been reconfigured as the pandemic has progressed, disproportionately heightening migrants’ exposure to the virus and their socioeconomic precarity. Through their personal stories, the paper provides insights into the evolving livelihood pathways of migrant workers during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, their (changing) views of migration as a route to progress, and tentatively sets out how ruptures caused by the pandemic may lead to a re-thinking of livelihood pathways for such men and women and their families. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 21 July 2020 Accepted 27 October 2020 KEYWORDS Migration; livelihood pathways; mobility; precarity; Asia 1. Introduction: mobility in an era of globalisation The case for migration as an avenue for human development in the context of globalisa- tion was set out in the influential 2009 UNDP Human Development Report Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development (UNDP 2009): For many people in developing countries moving away from their home town or village can be the best – sometimes the only – option open to improve their life chances. Human mobi- lity can be hugely effective in raising a person’s income, health and education prospects. But its value is more than that: being able to decide where to live is a key element of human freedom. (UNDP 2009, 1) Migrants are quintessential globalisation subjects. Their movement within and across national borders is predicated on processes of global integration, making migration poss- ible and, for some, profitable. Even in non-pandemic times, individual migrants and their © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Diana Suhardiman d.suhardiman@cgiar.org JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES 2021, VOL. 47, NO. 1, 88–109 https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1844561