According to Simone Baglioni, who writes in this article for Open Democracy, “while the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was raging in Europe, public opinion and governments seemed to have gained awareness of the importance that some workers play for our everyday needs and, overall, for our societies’ wellbeing”.
For the Sirius coordinator the scenario he describes “suggests that it is time for Europe to complete its path towards the full recognition of the contributions that foreign workers and foreign citizens provide to our economies and societies by providing them with stable and robust legal statuses instead of confining them into the well-known limbo of legal precarity. It is time for our governments to provide rights and entitlements to those who work and live with us, to those who strive with us. We call for the Portuguese presidency of the Council which is just starting its semester to seize the opportunity and pave the way in that direction: if called upon, civil society actors, business operators, ordinary citizens and scholars are ready to do their part”.