Stuck in Mobility

The accommodation of refugees in state reception centres or in collective facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic posed a particular challenge. The cramped conditions, shared rooms and communal use of kitchens and sanitary facilities favoured a high risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Physical distancing is often difficult to implement in such facilities, which leads to an increased susceptibility to infection.

The RECENT project of the Halle-Wittenberg and Witten/Herdecke Universities investigated, among other things, how the infection control measures were perceived by various actors and what challenges and conflicts arose as a result of these measures. The project "Neither Dead nor Alive: Seafarers as Frontline Workers in the Covid-19 Crisis and Beyond" at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, which was funded under the same funding line, examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on seafarers.

The "Stuck in Mobility" project brings together the results from the two research projects and presents them together in the form of an exhibition for a non-scientific audience. The focus of the project is to convey the spatial dimension of the pandemic for these population groups to the public and thus make it possible for outsiders to experience what life was like during the pandemic for people who were forced to live (and work) together in institutionalised, confined spaces.