Drivers and destinations: people with disability from Syrian and Iraqi refugee backgrounds making the journey to Australia

ABSTRACT

According to global estimates, there are 10 million people with disability who are displaced representing diverse ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Little is known about the refugee experiences of people with disability and their family members or the journeys they have undertaken to seek refuge. This paper explores the drivers and destinations underpinning the refugee journeys made by people with disability and family members fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq, to settle in Australia. In-depth life history interviews were conducted in Arabic with two men with disability and two mothers with sons with disability to understand their refugee journeys. Results are grouped under three journey-related themes developed from seminal work by BenEzer and Zetter: ‘Why’ (Drivers and Temporal Characteristics) participants fled their country of origin, ‘How’ (the Process and Content of the Journey), including the dangers they faced while leaving, their experiences arriving at and living in the transit country, and ‘Where’ participants travelled from their country of origin to (Destinations and Temporal Characteristics). This study demonstrates that the refugee journeys made by people with disability and family members from Syrian and Iraqi backgrounds are complex and multi-dimensional, with the overlay of disability central to their journey experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• refugee
• journeys
• life history
• participatory action research

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge and thank Manal Nasta, co-researcher employed to conduct the life history interviews in Arabic, the four participants who so generously and honestly shared their journey stories, Auslan and International Sign interpreters, Dr Amie O’Shea and Ramas McRae who facilitated the interviews with ‘Girgis’, and Hon. Professor Kelley Johnson who provided advice on life history interviews with people with disability. I pay my respects to the Traditional Custodians of the Lands where this research took place, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Deakin University Faculty of Health Mid-Career Fellowship.