The book analyses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on three ethnic minorities in three European Cities: Bangladeshi in London, Turks in Stuttgart and Peruvians in Milan. Considerable debate has emerged during the pandemic concerning its impact on minorities, and although impressive quantitative data has been generated by epidemologists, qualitative studies also have a great relevance for understanding the impact of the pandemic, socially and culturally, as well as institutionally. While in normal circumstances the position of migrant communities is associated with unequal access to scarce resources such as wealth, power and social prestige, the coronavirus pandemic shifted the focus to more specific variables: living in segmented and overcrowded conditions, working in jobs with higher risk exposure, difficulties with online schooling, and lack of access to health care and information.

The chapter supports the claim that the interplay between ‘state capacity’ and the ‘capacity to aspire’ finds its Archimedean Point in the fuzzy field of ‘layered resilience’. The conclusion also provides suggestions for future research within the matrix of migrant population/local state/pandemic/integration. After outlining some insights from our research, that might contribute to a sociological understanding of the concept of ‘layered resilience’, the chapter concludes with a brief view about continuity and difference between Covid 19 and previous pandemics that shaped world history.