Stories from the Margins: Refugees with Disabilities Rebuilding Lives. Societies Without Borders. 10(1). (original) (raw)
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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 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,
Making rights to education real for refugees with disabilities (Background Paper)
2018
This paper was commissioned by the Global Education Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2019 GEM Report, Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls. It has not been edited by the team. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the Global Education Monitoring Report or to UNESCO.
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.
Disability in refugee populations
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,
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.
Australian Journal of Human Rights, 2021
Refugees often come from countries with histories of human rights violations and can face multiple challenges in building a new life in Australia. Little is known about the specific experiences of those who also live with a disability, and how this may impact their rights to health. We present an intersectional approach to using artsbased research to bring to light the embodied experiences of these people, who live at the intersection of multiple axes of marginalisation. Bringing together lived experience of displacement and disability, with interdisciplinary researchers and a range of clinicians and service providers, we present an overview of the issues faced by refugees with disabilities in Australia. We then discuss how arts-based research could help to generate academic and policy discourses which are more attentive to the needs, priorities and identities of refugees with disabilities.
Diplomatica
This article analyzes unhcr’s understanding of disabled refugees during the 1959–1960 World Refugee Year (wry) and the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons (iydp) and, specifically, how this understanding is intertwined with the international-protection activities that were undertaken on their behalf during both years. This analysis is based on archival material on the two years from the unhcr archives in Geneva. The article finds that unhcr’s engagement with disabled refugees during the two UN observances is characterized by the economic rationale of self-sufficiency and the humanitarian rationale of vulnerability – depending on what was perceived as the best-selling frame in light of the political climate at the time. Both cases therefore highlight the political nature of classifications and frames for the international protection of disabled refugees and expose how the international protection of disabled refugees is not static but, instead, remains repeatedly reconstructed.
Compounded Exclusion: Education for Disabled Refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa
Frontiers in Education, 2020
International conventions acknowledge the right of refugees and of disabled people to access quality inclusive education. Both groups struggle to assert this right, particularly in the Global South, where educational access may be hindered by system constraints, resource limitations and negative attitudes. Our concern is the intersectional and compounding effect of being a disabled refugee in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disabled refugees have been invisible in policy and service provision, reliable data is very limited, and there has been little research into their experiences of educational inclusion and exclusion. This article makes the case for research to address this gap. Three country contexts (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Uganda) are presented to illustrate the multilayered barriers and challenges to realizing the rights for disabled refugees in educational policy and practice. These three countries host refugees who have fled civil unrest and military conflict, economic collapse and natural disaster, and all have signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. None has available and reliable data about the numbers of disabled refugees, and there is no published research about their access to education. Arguing for an inclusive and intersectional approach and for the importance of place and history, we illustrate the complexity of the challenge. This complexity demands conceptual resources that account for several iterative and mutually constituting factors that may enable or constrain access to education. These include legislation and policy, bureaucracy and resource capacity, schools and educational institutions, and community beliefs and attitudes. We conclude with a call for accurate data to inform policy and enable monitoring and evaluation. We advocate for the realization of the right to education for disabled refugee students and progress toward the realization of quality inclusive education for all.