The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role migrant workers play in the provision of essential goods and services around the world. The new MigResHub encourages us to think about how labour migration policies and the employment of migrants can shape systemic resilience to external shocks (Anderson et al 2020). In this commentary, I briefly reflect on potential opportunities and risks associated with linking migrants to systemic resilience as a way of rethinking labour migration and the effects of migrant workers. I write from the perspective of the International Labour Organization (ILO) whose activities on migration aim to protect the rights of migrant workers and promote fair and effective labour migration policies around the world.[1]