Oceania ( IF 1.167 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-16 , DOI: 10.1002/ocea.5266 Ola Gunhildrud Berta 1 , Elise Berman 2 , Albious Latior 3
Iọkwe,
I'm one of the many poultry workers that haven't been paid. I've worked at Ozark [a poultry factory] in Fayetteville for six months now. Last month, I was feeling sick and coughing so I went to get tested. The results came back positive. I have quarantined since. I haven't gone back to work because I'm still not feeling well. My wife got tested and she was positive too. She has worked at Tyson for almost six years. She is also under quarantine.
We're both alone at home trying our best to get better again. It has been very hard because we were both so sick. We called our workplaces and asked them if they would pay us for the weeks that we were quarantined. My workplace told me that I would only get a paycheck for two weeks when I get back to work.
Days later, they called me and told me that they were going to terminate me because they needed proof from ER that I'm really sick with COVID‐19. I took a pic of my results and sent it to them. Now I thank God I still have my job. But I am still sick and quarantined without a paycheck. My wife has recovered and returned to work, after a month at home. She was only compensated for one week.
I'm sad to tell the world that we are living with our son and his family. We moved out of our apartment a few days ago because we didn't have the money to pay our rent and utilities. How would you feel if it was you facing this situation?
This is the story of a Marshallese poultry worker in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), USA. Through the summer of 2020, Marshallese and other Pacific Islanders in the USA have been disproportionally affected by COVID‐19. Although less than 3% of the NWA population, Marshallese are 65% of the deaths. This contrasts dramatically with Marshallese experiences in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) itself. Though not without the consequences of economic hardship and empty food stores, the RMI has managed to keep its borders closed and citizens safe. Some might assume, as a result, that some nations really are islands after all—isolated from the rest of the world.
However, that perspective overlooks the fluid borders that characterize Pacific Island nations and peoples. It also overlooks how past colonialism has led to emigration that has spread Marshallese communities far beyond their atoll reefs, and how current day labor and neocolonial inequities have led to severe suffering in diasporic communities. While Pacific Island nations dominate the short list of COVID free territories in the world, diasporic Pacific islanders are disproportionately overrepresented in COVID‐19 cases and deaths in the USA.
Here, we will look briefly at how COVID‐19 is affecting the RMI before turning towards some Marshallese communities in continental USA. Using the personal stories of Marshallese affected by COVID‐19, we will illustrate how pandemic impacts are unequal, how they are tied to neocolonial policies, and how they leave those impacted worse off than they could possibly have imagined. The stories have been edited for space concerns, and we will leave them unanalyzed and unexplained, choosing instead to let them speak for themselves. All were collected by Albious between June and August 2020 and concern the Marshallese community in Arkansas.
中文翻译：
COVID‐19和马绍尔人
我，
我是许多没有得到报酬的家禽工人之一。我已经在Fayetteville的Ozark [家禽工厂]工作了六个月。上个月，我感到恶心和咳嗽，所以去接受检查。结果返回正面。从那以后我就被隔离了。我没有回去工作，因为我仍然感觉不舒服。我的妻子接受了测试，她也很积极。她在泰森工作了近六年。她也正在隔离中。
我们俩一个人在家，尽力使自己变得更好。因为我们俩都病得很重，所以很难。我们打电话给我们的工作场所，问他们是否愿意在我们隔离的那几个星期内付给我们。我的工作场所告诉我，回到工作岗位后，我只能得到两周的薪水。
几天后，他们打电话给我，并告诉我他们将要终止我，因为他们需要ER的证据证明我真的对COVID-19感到不适。我拍了照片，并将其发送给他们。现在我感谢上帝，我还有我的工作。但是我仍然生病并且没有薪水被隔离。我的妻子在家里呆了一个月后已经康复并重返工作岗位。她只得到了一个星期的报酬。
我很伤心地告诉世界，我们生活与我们的儿子和他的家人。几天前我们搬出了公寓，因为我们没有钱支付房租和水电费。如果面对这种情况，您会有什么感觉？
这是美国西北阿肯色州（NWA）一名马绍尔家禽工人的故事。到2020年夏天，美国的马绍尔人和其他太平洋岛民受到了COVID-19的不成比例的影响。尽管马绍尔人不到NWA人口的3％，但在死亡人数中占65％。这与马绍尔群岛共和国（RMI）本身的马绍尔人经验形成鲜明对比。尽管并非没有经济困难和空荡荡的食品库所带来的后果，但马绍尔群岛共和国已设法保持边界封闭和公民安全。结果，有些人可能会认为某些国家毕竟确实是岛屿，与世界其他地区隔绝。
但是，这种观点忽视了太平洋岛国和人民的边界界限。它还忽略了过去的殖民主义如何导致移民，使马绍尔人的社区远远超出了其珊瑚礁，以及当今的劳动和新殖民主义的不平等如何导致流离失所社区的严重苦难。太平洋岛国在全球COVID自由领地的短名单中占主导地位，而散居太平洋的太平洋岛民在美国的COVID-19案件和死亡人数中所占比例过高。
在这里，我们将简要介绍COVID-19如何影响RMI，然后再转向美国大陆上的一些马绍尔族社区。使用受COVID-19影响的马绍尔人的个人故事，我们将说明大流行的影响是如何不平等的，如何将它们与新殖民主义政策联系起来，以及如何使受影响的人们变得比想象的更糟。这些故事已针对太空问题进行了编辑，我们将不对其进行分析和解释，而选择让他们自己说话。2020年6月至2020年8月之间，所有藏品均由Albious收集，涉及阿肯色州的马绍尔人社区。
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