Pandemic Experiences in the Urban Periphery

Certain regions were “left-behind” during the COVID-19 pandemic response and were therefore forced to bear the brunt of the consequences in various ways. There is however an important spatial component associated with these “forgotten densities”. Namely, these areas were peripherally situated at the outskirts of urban centres. They include for instance, areas that hosted large tracts of lands that could accommodate airports, large-scale farms, factories, warehouses, meatpacking facilities, suburban residential neighbourhoods, indigenous reserves, as well as informal settlement areas in the Global South. These peripheral sites were also host to a disproportionate number of outbreaks (i.e. they were pandemic “hot spots”).

Notably, many residing and working in the urban periphery are members of socially marginalized communities, yet they were the ones tasked with the “essential” work necessary to for the day-to-day survival of those in the centre, while at the same time increasing their own vulnerability to viral exposure. We focus here on the pandemic challenges faced by various groups in the periphery of Toronto, Canada. As such, we consider the pandemic experiences of racialized and ethnic minorities in Toronto suburbs (which is home to a very high proportion of minorities and newcomers), First Nations people on reserves located outside the Greater Toronto Area, and migrant agricultural workers employed in the fertile Niagara Falls. All of there sites had elevated rates of COVID-19 infection relative to the urban core. To round out the analysis of peripheral areas we also consider the experiences of those in informal settlement areas in the Global South. Further, we discuss how, despite resistance from neoliberal and far-right forces, members of the periphery were able to challenge the existing public health governance structure to have their needs addressed, at least to some degree, during the pandemic.