The central focus of this research is to explore the critical dimensions of social-economic deprivations from the point of reference of Africans living in Scotland and identify possible solutions to mitigate the economic damages that they are likely to face because of the pandemic.
The four dimensions of social-economic status we collected data on are income, education, employment status, and wealth accumulation (asset ownership and savings) of Africans living in Scotland.
The results from our exploratory data analysis suggest that approximately 68% of our respondents have either lost their jobs, savings, are unable to pay their mortgages, cannot afford food, or have relied on friends and family to cover living expenses since the outbreak of the pandemic. Only 32% per cent reported that the COVID-19 had a negligible impact on their economic status. In terms of economic vulnerability, we found that 27% of the respondents have found another job, 24% borrowed money, 16% relied on family and friends, 5% sold assets, and 28% spent their savings to cover living expenses.