Abstract

Disabled refugees experience multiple barriers through the process of resettlement, and yet, their perspectives are rarely solicited in discussions of refugee policy and practice. This article focuses on the life history and resettlement experiences of Samir Omar, a disabled refugee, who recounts how he learned to navigate resettlement through his interactions with the state. Data for this article comes from a three year, multisited, multilingual ethnography conducted with refugee families who have been recently resettled to the United States. This larger study, in which Samir was a participant, examined the ways refugees’ encounters with the state come to bear on their embodiments and understandings of citizenship. Leveraging a critical disability studies theoretical lens, we analyze the production of Samir’s disability through displacement and resettlement, as well as the framing of his disability as barring him from productive citizenship. We argue that the refugee resettlement process is inherently educative, resulting in Samir’s sustained critique of the able-bodied norms of citizenship. Samir produces his own “curriculum of navigation” for disabled refugees that offers an alternative policy for resettlement and reframes able-bodied notions of dependency and self-sufficiency.

摘要

残疾难民在重新安置过程中遇到了许多障碍，但是，在讨论难民政策和做法时很少征求他们的观点。本文着重介绍残疾难民萨米尔·奥马尔（Samir Omar）的生活历史和重新安置经历，他讲述了他如何通过与国家的互动来学习如何进行重新安置。本文的数据来自对难民家庭进行的为期三年，多地点，多语言的人种志研究，这些难民家庭最近已移居美国。萨米尔（Samir）参与的这项较大的研究调查了难民与国家的相遇方式对他们的体现和对公民身份的理解所起的作用。利用严重残疾研究的理论视角，我们分析了萨米尔人因流离失所和重新安置而产生的残疾，以及将他的残疾定为禁止他获得生产性公民身份的框架。我们认为，难民的安置过程本质上是教育性的，从而导致萨米尔对健全的公民身份准则持持续的批评态度。萨米尔为残疾人难民制作了自己的“航行课程”，为移民安置提供了另一种政策，并重新构筑了健全的依赖和自给自足的观念。