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Disability and displacement in times of conflict: Rethinking migration, flows and boundaries

BERGHS, Maria
2015

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In this paper, I try to understand the changed relationship of conflict to migration as seen through a lens of fluidity and what that entails for disabled people - particularly what boundaries and borders are at stake. Secondly, I investigate migration through the idea of ‘ontological insecurity’ and try and link this to ideas of (dis)/ableism. Then, I attend to what happens when boundaries are enforced in the humanitarianism of a refugee camp, to explain how territoriality of such a setting unmakes people into ‘strangers’. I show how the structural violence of poverty leads to a necessary fluidity and illustrate how people use this to combat the ‘unmaking’ of the self and reinsert themselves back into social life and relationships. Lastly, I examine the place of biolegal politics in medical humanitarianism and explore the relationship to ‘necropolitics’ and its consequences.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 1

Disability-inclusive healthcare in humanitarian camps: Pushing the boundaries of disability studies and global health

MIRZA, Mansha
2015

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A significant proportion of forced migrants live in humanitarian camps located in remote regions of the global South. Disabled persons have been historically neglected within camp programs across all service sectors, especially healthcare. This paper describes an exploratory research study on healthcare access for forced migrants with disabilities in the context of humanitarian camps. Based on the methodological framework of rapid ethnography, the research involved guided tours, community mapping exercises, ethnographic observations, and semi-structured interviews in a refugee camp in southern Africa. Additional key informants from other sites were interviewed remotely using a convenience sampling strategy. Several important insights emerged from the research including: misperceptions about the health-related needs of disabled persons, their specialized health needs falling outside the ‘social minimum’ of humanitarian healthcare, and concerns about distributional ethics in relation to disability-inclusive healthcare. The research also highlighted barriers and strategies for addressing disability-specific health needs given significant resource constraints in humanitarian camps. These findings are discussed in light of practical and theoretical challenges in the fields of disability studies and global health.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2015, Vol. 2 No. 1

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