German Law Journal 1649 determined as much by political considerations as it has by reference to epidemiological or scientific data. Travel restrictions have even, as the pandemic has moved into its later stages, been conditioned by the availability of vaccines, which the richer countries themselves largely control. This profoundly undermines the position of those with the citizenship of, or family or business connections with, those countries that are deemed to pose greater risks. It highlights familiar neo-colonial patterns organized around the racialization of risk and disease.87 While the implications of the mobility and travel restrictions that have been imposed stretch beyond the issue of citizenship, they are none the less frequently conditioned by the contours of formal membership. For example, holding a national passport or having permanent resident status is necessary for entry or for residence in a particular part of a country.88 COVID-19 related emergency measures have impacted upon different groups of citizens in different ways. Amongst the groups of citizens who were located outside their home country at the point when the restrictions were imposed there will be those whose absence from the home country is temporary and those whose absence is permanent, along with many shades between the two. These groups will also include those who hold single citizenship (perhaps in combination with a residence permit in the host country or a special status like India’s Overseas Citizenship to allow return to the country of origin where citizenship has been lost) and those who are dual or multiple citizens. Diasporas have come to the forefront of policymaking during the pandemic, notably as a result of the dilemma as to whether to persuade them to return “home” or to “stay put” and thus to continue producing the remittances that may contribute to offsetting the economic impact of the pandemic and that can move digitally without any requirement of physical movement in our financially interconnected world. A minority of countries have imposed restrictions on their “own” nationals, in apparent violation of Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for the right for everyone to be able to return to their “own country.”89 This raises doubts about the caps placed by New Zealand and Australia on returning citizens on the grounds of limited quarantine capacity,90 about the steps taken by Australia to criminalize citizens returning from India at certain points, although these have been upheld in the courts,91 and about India’s withdrawal of the visa privileges associated with the status of overseas citizen or person of Indian origin.92 There are a number of countries which have prohibited citizens from leaving without permission during the pandemic.93 87 Marcos S. Scauso, Garrett FitzGerald, Arlene Tickner, Navnita Chadha Behera, Chengxin Pan, Chih Yu Shih, & Kosuke Shimizu, COVID-19, Democracies, and (De)Colonialities, 7 DEMOCRATIC THEORY 82 (2020); Matiangai Sirleaf, Entry Denied: COVID-19, Race, Migration, and Global Health, in FRONTIERS HUM. DYNAMICS (2020). 88 Leaving aside the issue of mobility within states and the implications of often quite draconian “stay at home” orders or bans on public transport with the implications that these have for personal liberty and other human rights. See source cited infra note 148 for a discussion of India. For a case study, see Timothy Affonso, The Legality and Enforceability of “Stay-athome” Orders: The Appropriate Response to Covid-19 by Trinidad and Tobago, 46 COMMONWEALTH L. BULL. 183 (2020). 89 For discussion, see Rutsel Martha & Stephen Bailey, The Right to Enter His or Her Own Country, EJIL:TALK!, (Jun. 23, 2020), https://www.ejiltalk.org/the-right-to-enter-his-or-her-own-country/; Jaclyn L. Neo & Darius Lee, Borders and Entry Controls in Asia, in COVID-19 IN ASIA: LAW AND POLICY CONTEXTS (Victor V. Ramraj ed., Oxford Univ. Press 2021). 90 For a comprehensive review of the Australian restrictions as of September 2021, see Leanne Weber, Membership Without Mobility: The Counterfactual as Fact, GLOBALCIT (Sept. 2, 2021), https://globalcit.eu/mobility-without-membership-do-weneed-special-passports-for-vulnerable-groups/10/. 91 Liz Hicks, Australia and the Right of Repatriation: Why Have “Stranded” Australian Citizens Brought a Complaint Against Their Government in the United Nations?, VERFBLOG, (Apr. 12, 2021), https://verfassungsblog.de/australia-and-the-right-ofrepatriation/; Sangeetha Pillai, Is Australia’s India Travel Ban Legal? A Citizenship Law Expert Explains, KALDOR CENTRE BLOG (May 5, 2021), https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/australia%E2%80%99s-india-travel-banlegal-citizenship-law-expert-explains; Sangeetha Pillai, Australian Citizenship: Lessons from the India Travel Ban, LSJ ONLINE (May 28, 2021), https://lsj.com.au/articles/australian-citizenship-lessons-from-the-india-travel-ban/. 92 Government Relaxes Visa Restrictions, THE HINDU, (Oct. 22, 2020), https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/indiarelaxes-visa-restrictions/article32916564.ece. 93 This is not so uncommon: For example, between March 29 and May 17, 2021, ostensibly in order to prevent UK residents from taking foreign holidays, there was a general ban on leaving the UK except for certain reasons—as these were limited to work, volunteering, education, medical needs, and to attend weddings or funerals, they were of little assistance to transnational https://doi.org/10.1017/glj.2021.77 Published online by Cambridge University Press