ABSTRACT

Despite numerous studies that have demonstrated widening social inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic, we do not yet see research on whether the surge in social inequalities would also have unequal consequences for people’s subjective experience. By linking the countrywide Understanding Society COVID-19 longitudinal survey with the latest wave of the main-stage survey, we examine whether and how the psychological costs of economic lockdowns are unevenly distributed between UK-born and foreign-born working men. Findings provide direct evidence for a widening gap in mental well-being resulting from the widening socioeconomic gap between immigrant and native-born working men, during COVID-19 lockdowns. Employment disruption does not necessarily hurt mental well-being of the native-born, as long as their income is protected. For immigrants, however, work hour reduction is generally accompanied by psychological costs, with greater mental suffering among immigrant men who experience work hour reduction without income protection – particularly in the extreme scenario of reduction to no work hours.

抽象的

尽管有大量研究表明在COVID-19大流行期间社会不平等现象日益扩大，但我们尚未看到有关社会不平等现象激增是否还会对人们的主观体验产生不平等后果的研究。通过将全国性的理解协会COVID-19纵向调查与最新一阶段的主要调查相结合，我们研究了经济封锁的心理成本是否以及如何在英国出生和在国外出生的劳动者之间分配不均。这些发现提供了直接证据，证明在COVID-19禁闭期间，移民和本地出生的劳动者之间的社会经济鸿沟不断扩大，导致心理健康鸿沟不断扩大。只要保护他们的收入，就业中断并不一定会损害他们的心理健康。对于移民