Wasted lives in scapegoat Britain: overlaps and departures between migration studies and disability studies

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to consider how disability studies and migration studies may be brought into further conversation with one another. While their experiences overlap and intersect in many ways, the lives of disabled people and migrants have rarely been considered together and this is an omission we address through a discussion on points of intersection and departure between migration studies and disability studies.

We argue that migrants and disabled people are among the most marginalised individuals today whilst a Global North neoliberal rhetoric has pushed them further to the margins. We draw on Bauman’s theorisation of ‘wasted lives’ to bring disability studies and migration studies in dialogue with one another. Through this analysis, we highlight how bringing both disciplines together may help to inform debates focused on social justice and rights to dignity for some of world’s most marginalised communities.

Keywords:

• Disability
• migration
• social justice
• minority rights
• activism
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgement

We have been inspired to write this paper by an event we held in November 2017 at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. We are grateful to the ESRC for funding this important event which focused on disability and migration and these categories’ peripheral positioning in societies. We would like to thank Professor Katherine Runswick-Cole without whom this paper would not be in its current form. Fereshteh Mozaffari, a poet and scriptwriter, was also involved in this event and we are grateful for her contribution. Robin Sukatorn, an artist, documented the event with sketches.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Economic and Social Research Council.