The experience of disability in plural societies (original) (raw)
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Editorial: Towards a Critical Understanding of the Disability/Forced Migration nexus
2015
Much has been written and documented on forced migration and the movements of people within and across national borders. People have always been forced to move, they always will, perhaps now more than ever. In light of environmental disasters, wars and conflict, food shortages, economic crises and environmental degradation among others, issues concerning forced migration are increasingly covered in the media, though often partially and rarely acknowledging the geopolitical and historical. The migration–development nexus has also been acknowledged and over the past years we have seen reasonable attention with the development literature infused within broader subjects of poverty reduction and humanitarian intervention (see for example Van Hear and Nyberg Sorensen, 2003; Faist et al., 2011). However, within the research and literature on forced migration, one is continuously struck by the persistent absence of disabled people in its content (see for example O’Reilly, 2012) as well as t...
Disability and Forced Migration: Critical Intersectionalities
The vast majority of the world’s displaced people are hosted in the global South, in the poorest countries in the world. This is also a space with the highest numbers of disabled people, many of who live in extreme and chronic poverty. This poverty, alongside deprivation, wars, conflict, and environmental disasters is what drives people to flee, in search of security. This includes disabled people. In spite of this, this population (disabled forced migrants) continues to be cast in a shadow, of epistemological, ontological and practical invisibility. It is hardly theorised in forced migration studies and rarely contemplated in humanitarian intervention. The lives of disabled forced migrants are cast aside in a Eurocentric disability studies that remains global North-centric and focused, while Southern contexts and histories and the geopolitics that envelope them, are forgotten or never known. Migration theory grows without the disabled person, disability studies without the migrant, and practice without the disabled migrant. In this paper, we explore the disability/forced migration nexus with a view to understanding some of the critical intersectionalities that emerge, and their implications for theory and practice. We trace elements of the forced migration trajectory, from exodus, to crossing international borders, to life in protracted refugee camps, the use of networks and smugglers, to those related to national and human security. We argue that forced migration studies, as well as humanitarian practice continue to be premised on and adopting an ableist approach focused on heteronormative productive bodies, while disability studies, with a corpus of work premised on an assumption of citizenship, has failed to critically engage with issues of sovereignty, borders and bodies that lie beyond the protection of the Nation State. In this paper, we also question and contest dominant and hegemonic frames that are historically contextualized, alongside discourses and structures that not only produce forced migration, but also serve to perpetuate the global divide and inequalities. We conclude by calling for a critical interrogation of theoretical perspectives in both forced migration and disability studies, in policy and humanitarian action, and to work towards a praxis geared towards social justice for disabled forced migrants.
First-hand accounts of resettlement are seldom heard from refugees with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to facilitate a space for refugees with disabilities to tell their life histories, and their experiences related to resettlement. A global ethnographic framework was used to gather life history interview data from six refugees with a label of disability. Participants were from Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Bhutan. All participants partook in at least three semi-structured life history interviews. Participants had experiences that either facilitated or hindered their ability to build self-determined lives. In many cases, participants experienced multiple oppressions that began before they received a label of “refugee.” These oppressions took many forms (e.g., ableism, sexism, domestic violence, political persecution). However, all participants disrupted these oppressions in various ways (e.g., advocacy, education, employment). As in most life history research, only the stories of available participants are included in this study. As a result, findings cannot be generalized to other populations.
Disability in refugee populations: Forgotten and Invisible?
2017
Natural disasters, wars and other forms of human conflict have caused death and disabilities for as long as human beings have lived in society. Disasters are, however, unequal in their impact: the very old, the very young, and the disabled are more likely to be killed or to sustain injuries. 1 Refugees living with disabilities are often forgotten or invisible during acute crises of human displacement. They suffer multiple disadvantage. Exiled from their countries of nationality or origin, they live without the protection that comes with citizenship of, or habitual residence in, a state. They live in fear of persecution if returned to the country from which they have fled. 2 Most significantly, they are hampered by physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments that, even in the best of times, would hinder their full and effective participation in society. 3 Cut off from support networks in their home countries, they are also less likely to access 1 The earthquake and tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004 killed over 230 000 people in 14 countries. It was reported that four times as many women died as men; that one-third of all fatalities were children; but that persons with disabilities fared worst. See John Aglionby, 'Four times as many women died in tsunami', The Guardian, 26 March 2005. See, more generally, the research by Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plumper, 'The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy' (2007) 551 Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97. That study examined disasters over 21 years. 2 See Article 1A(2) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees,
2021
The purpose of this article is to explore the existing intersectional knowledge on integration and resettlement of refugees with disabilities in two of the top five resettlement countries in the world, Germany and Canada. There is limited research on the intersection of migration and disability, especially in the context of refugee resettlement. Reflecting the dominant pathways of migration in each country, what little research there is focuses on asylum seekers in Germany, and immigrants in Canada. The review describes settlement programs in each country. We draw from the global literature around forced migration and disability, as well as disability and migration more broadly in each country, to enhance the limited existing research and conduct an intersectional analysis at the level of systems, discourses and subjective narratives. Findings highlight three dominant themes that weave across all three levels: being a “burden” on society, being invisible, and agency and resistance. ...
Disability and unsafe migration: Data and policy, understanding the evidence
2017
Available from www.fmreview.org/en/disability/FMR35.pdf 7 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Conclusion on refugees with disabilities and other persons with disabilities protected and assisted by UNHCR No. 110 (LXI)-2010, Executive Committee 61st session. Contained in United Nations General Assembly document A/AC.96/1095, 12 October 2010. Available from www.unhcr.org/excom/exconc/4cbeb1a99/conclusion-refugees-disabilitiesother-persons-disabilities-protected-assisted.html 8 UN, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [A/RES/61/106],
An Overview of Human Migration and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the 21st Century
There is no doubt about the urgency migrants who fled their countries of origin are facing due to conflicts, persecution, economic, socio and environmental crisis. Although, the 1951 Convention does not apply to every migrant or displaced people. The States, as sovereignty Nations, can enact domestic laws regulating the immigration status of those who enter their territory, based upon their legal regimes, and based upon their status under the International Law. In a time when there are already improvements by the international law to protect the human rights of persons with disabilities, there are still gaps in the international and domestic laws, and this will be addressed through the policy-oriented jurisprudence approach. Nevertheless the motives for migration, this paper will focus on the problem of migration movement, and the rights of persons with disabilities in the 21st Century, and the possibility, if any, of their characterization as refugees.
Migrants in the Attic: The Case of Migrants with Disabilities and Resettlement Services in Serbia
Laws, 2021
The global migrant crisis triggered an unprecedented number of asylum seekers in the Balkan region. In this case study, the state of migrants with disabilities—a community notoriously overlooked during global conflict—is explored through field interviews of settlement service providers in Serbia. A human rights framework is espoused in first examining contemporary refugee law discourse and the corresponding gaps in current resettlement practice of migrants with disabilities. The study’s findings illuminate the need for a drastic shift in settlement services for those migrants most vulnerable to persecution in de facto destination countries. The discussion takes aim at “humanitarian silo” funding models and argues for international cooperation and transparency in accommodating migrants with disabilities internationally.