Impact of COVID 19 on mobility, accessibility and livehoods of marginalised groups in Ruhr area, São Paulo and Cape Town

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and deepened existing inequalities among marginalized households, particularly in terms of financial security, digital access, and emotional wellbeing. Some households were largely excluded from online services due to unstable internet, language barriers and low digital literacy, while others leveraged online learning to maintain educational and financial progress. Reliable digital infrastructure did play a critical role in recovery measures of marginalized households. Mobility restrictions triggered cascading effects across multiple sectors, reinforcing structural inequalities. These insights provide a foundation for further research and policy recommendations aimed at building more resilient and inclusive infrastructure systems. Both financial and mobility-related impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were uneven across household clusters with deep disparities in resilience and recovery. The analysis shows a strong interconnection between financial hardship and reduced mobility, yet recovery paths diverged: some households resumed travel despite ongoing financial struggles, while others improved financially but remained mobility-constrained. Overall, the pandemic has led to long-term shifts in both commuting behaviour and household livelihoods, with some groups still bearing the burden of the crisis while others have adapted or rebounded. At the same time, unequal digital access such as low digital literacy and the inability to shift work online left some households excluded from online services while others with better digital access were able to sustain education and income generation.