Living on the margin: disabled Iranians in Belgian society

Abstract

This paper explores the antecedents, experiences and consequences of marginalization as reported and dealt with by disabled Iranian immigrants in Belgium. This work extends the work of Gallie and colleagues and Siegrist demonstrating that the forces of marginalization applicable to all immigrants are particularly pertinent to disabled immigrants. The research is based on 26 in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews, focus groups, interviews with government officials and immigration experts, ethnographic work and official government statistics. The findings detail how the combined forces of history, context and reasons for immigration; isolation, vulnerability and perceived loss of control; religion and rejection; lack of reciprocity in social exchanges; problems in obtaining jobs; and difficulties in negotiating an entry into Belgian society combine to sustain marginizalation. As a consequence, disabled immigrants in this group are generally excluded from society and discriminated against in terms of citizenship, education, jobs and general acceptance.

Keywords:

• disability
• immigrants
• marginalization
• Belgium
• Iranians

Acknowledgements

This research was supported through a group fellowship to the authors from the Royal Flemish Academy in Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels, 2006–2008. The authors acknowledge Zahra Namaki for her interviewing and translation, the organizational support of Jean‐Luc Lory at Maison Suger, Paris, and the helpful feedback of Johannes Siegrist, Nico Dragano, Pablo Verde and colleagues at the Department of Medical Sociology, University of Düsseldorf, Belgian colleagues at a seminar at the University of Leuven, 2007, and Henri‐Jacques Stiker, Jean‐François Raveau, Isabelle Ville, Jean‐Marie Robine, Catherine Barral, Sébastien Doutreligne, Françoise Marchant and Myriam Winance at a seminar at Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 2007.