Disability and Migration: How systems of violence intersect with the production and experience of disability for migrants in Morocco

Authors

Frances Condon, SIT Study AbroadFollow

Home Institution

Haverford College

Publication Date

Fall 2019

Program Name

Morocco: Migration and Transnational Identity

Abstract

This project investigates the perspectives and experiences of physically disabled, chronically ill, or bodily-impaired migrants from south of the Sahara living in Rabat, Morocco. Increasing interest in disabled migrants’ rights from international organizations risks erasing those being ‘protected’ if it does not attend to the intersections of race, class, citizenship, and gender as they relate to the production and experience of disability for migrants. Produced by and for the (white) global North, I argue that traditional Euro-American disability studies scholarship is ill-equipped to address the issues faced by disabled migrants in post-colonial contexts. In addition to being ineffective, the uncritical application of these frameworks constitutes a form of academic colonialism. Building on the analyses of Puar and Gunaratnam, I highlight how systems of structural violence related to migration are inextricable from the production and experience of disability for migrants, making their disablement not an exceptional but anticipated reality.

Disciplines

Accessibility | African Languages and Societies | African Studies | Disability Studies | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Migration Studies | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies | Rehabilitation and Therapy | Social and Cultural Anthropology

Recommended Citation

Condon, Frances, "Disability and Migration: How systems of violence intersect with the production and experience of disability for migrants in Morocco" (2019). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 3156.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3156