Refugee Reception Research Articles

“Refugee Voices”

This article considers the parallels between ethnographic work and refugee advocacy to show how these knowledge forms seek and yet fail to represent “refugee voices.” The predicaments of refugees in Greece have recently captured the attention of the world owing to Greece’s crucial position in the 2015 “European refugee crisis,” but Greece has long been on the frontlines of refugee reception in the EU. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2005 and 2013, I analyze the ethnographic logics attached to European advocacy projects surrounding refugees in Greece. I explore their use of tragic tropes, and I argue that ethnographers employ similar tactics to carve out space for marginalized voices. I argue that the representational practices of ethnography and advocacy alike are haunted by various “ghosts”: traces of silenced subjects who index both the limits and possibilities of representation. I argue, ultimately, for a humbling of the ethnographer: for a careful consideration of the power of not knowing in our work, and for recognition of the overlaps between ethnographic knowledge and dominant formations of power.

Asylum in Germany: The Making of the ‘Crisis’ and the Role of Civil Society

In most German cities today, refugees are welcomed and supported by a large and growing number of individuals and collectives whose volunteer work covers almost all aspects of refugee reception. At the same time, the arrival and establishment of refugees has been met with xenophobic protest and violence in many German localities. Focusing especially on the example of a local welcome initiative, but also considering exclusionary civil-society practices, this contribution explores recent civil-society involvement in refugee reception against the legal and political context of asylum in Germany. It will be argued that measures of forced dispersal, deterrence and discomfort, in particular, have materially and discursively produced the framing of current refugee movements as a ‘crisis’ and have triggered the differing actions and reactions among local populations. The fact that the ‘refugee crisis’ has been presented not only as a threat, but also as a ‘humanitarian crisis’ that needs to be tackled by both German state actors and civil society has encouraged the wave of positive reactions. Furthermore, taking into account local negotiation processes of asylum is significant if we want to understand the recent and often contradictory civil-society responses. The paper draws on observations from an ongoing research project on local migration regimes and urban asylum, as well as on other studies dealing with refugee reception in Germany.

Health for refugees - the Bremen model

The Bremen model recognizes that refugee health care has to go beyond merely checking for the prevalence of contagious diseases. Elementary health care offered in the reception centre and transitory facilities is based on voluntary acceptance by the refugees. At the same time, legal requirements for the medical reception of refugees are observed. In addition, doctors performing the initial medical examination are enabled to cover acute care on the spot. During the preliminary phase of immigration refugees are allowed to see a doctor in their facility repeatedly. After acertain time, they are provided with ahealth card permitting limited access to regular care outside of their facility. The current rise of refugee numbers affects the situation of Bremen health care for adult as well as juvenile refugees. In spite of the increase, health care standards are maintained by means of the health card. From 2011 to 2014, "Factors influencing health status and contact with health services" averaged 29.6 % in the health check data. Diseases of the respiratory system (18.1 %) and "symptoms, signs and abnormal findings not elsewhere classified" (16.9 %) ranked second and third, respectively. Diseases of the digestive system (6.1 %) of the musculoskeletal system (6 %) and of the skin and subcutaneous tissue (3.6 %) followed. Infectious diseases such as HIV infections, hepatitis or tuberculosis were seldom.

Health considerations in the Syrian refugee resettlement process in Canada.

Canada has responded to the humanitarian emergency in Syria by committing to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees by early 2016. This has been a complex undertaking which required coordination between international organizations, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and federal government departments, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Within and across Canada, this initiative has also required the collaboration of provincial and municipal governments, non-governmental organizations and volunteers, including private sponsors, to enable planning for the transition of Syrian refugees into a new life in Canada. In planning for the reception of Syrian refugees, government agencies did not anticipate major infectious disease threats. However, early findings from Europe and the experience of health care providers who serve other refugee populations suggested that this population may have other unmet health needs and untreated conditions, due to their experience of displacement over the past three to four years. With this in mind, a great deal of planning has been undertaken to address potential challenges to public health. Social services providers and medical interpreters have been enlisted to help Syrians access the health care system and explain their needs. Communities of practice within Canada have responded, both in providing care and in developing and updating tools and resources to support a culturally sensitive and evidence-based approach to screening and meeting the health needs of the Syrian refugees.

Russia's international aid donorship: from diplomatic status symbol to “frontline aid”?

Russia is generally considered to be a so-called ‘emerging aid donor’ since Moscow officially announced, at the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg in 2006, that it wanted to become a donor economy again after it had been a recipient economy for one and a half decades. More recently, Russia’s reception of refugees from south-eastern Ukraine and the Russian humanitarian convoys to resistance-held areas there added new controversy about the nature of its aid. Russia also manifested itself as an aid actor with its proposal to the International Red Cross, to have humanitarian truces in Yemen. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the proportions, characteristics and motives of Russia’s current official and officious policies of international development and humanitarian aid, and compare these with what some authors have identified as the identity dilemma in international relations which Russia has struggled with over the last 15 years, one between becoming a (regional) power again despite a number of lingering internal social-economic challenges, integrating into the G8 or leading among emergent economies, and promoting development and thus the export of a societal model or rather privilege the redistribution of wealth.

“Their Only Words of English Were ‘Thank You’”: Rights, Gratitude and ‘Deserving’ Hungarian Refugees to Britain in 1956

AbstractThe Soviet invasion of Hungary in late October 1956 resulted in the exodus of approximately two hundred thousand Hungarians, of whom approximately twenty-one thousand came to Britain within a matter of weeks. This article historicizes the process of reception and resettlement of Hungarian refugees in Britain. Through exploring the rhetoric used and attitudes displayed during the reception and resettlement process, it considers if and how legally recognized rights established for refugees under the 1951 UN Convention mediated their arrival and treatment. It finds a failure of a new discourse of rights to permeate the language surrounding their reception. Instead, well-worn tropes of the generosity of the British and their traditions of tolerance and hospitality were deployed consistently at national and local levels. This had the effect of implying that entry to Britain was a privilege and one not to be abused, and it marginalized refugees who failed to conform to particular expectations. The article argues that tying attitudes toward Hungarian refugees—variously positioned as “grateful” or “ungrateful”—can be usefully understood within the context of broader conceptions of the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor and their relationship with the (welfare) state. Consequently, along with exploring the experiences of reception and resettlement of Hungarians in 1956/7 the article contributes to understandings of behavior, rights, and welfare in postwar Britain.

Introduction to Special Forum on the Geographies of the Presidential Election

Introduction to Special Forum on the Geographies of the Presidential Election Hilda E. Kurtz As the U.S. Presidential campaigns grew increasingly turbulent in the midwinter of 2016, the editorial team at Southeastern Geographer began to wonder how different geographers might make sense of the complex socio-spatial dynamics shaping the election season. Viewing the journal as a forum in which to wrestle with the complex geographies of the southern region of the U.S., we were particularly interested in the implications of the growing relevance of southern voters to presidential elections, as evidenced in stacking of Super Tuesday primaries to include four southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia) among the 12 states voting. At the same time, viewing the region relationally, we were interested to bring together voices that could iterate between a regional and national perspective on the presidential campaigns. To that end, we reached out to geographers from across the discipline and across the country whose work could help us make some sense of the twists and turns of this campaign season. We invited seasoned political geographers John Agnew and Fred Shelley and urban/cultural/political geographers Caroline Nagel Winders to draw on their respective areas of expertise. Together, these essays offer textured perspectives on the voting patterns and political discourses which distinguish the current presidential campaign season. John Agnew and Michael Shin, having drawn powerfully on geographical analysis to shed light on the rise and fall of Sergio Berlusconi in Berlusconi’s Italy: Mapping Contemporary Italian Politics (2008, Temple University Press), consider the parallels between Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump. Their essay offers a critical reflection on the dramaturgy of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, reading Trump’s ascendance in part against re-alignments of party politics. Dr. Agnew has invoked the concept of political dramaturgy as a way to consider the staging of political parties’ interests at different geographical scales (Agnew 1997), and the term resonates here in a way that sheds light on the “Theater of and Jamie Politics”. Fred Shelley and Ashley Hitt blend traditional techniques of electoral analysis (which Shelley helped pioneer, see Archer and Shelley 1986; Shelley 1984) [End Page 262] with data derived from social media to tease apart the demographics of support for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. It is well known by now that Sanders plays especially well to millennial voters. In an innovative and iterative approach, Shelley and Shin combine social media data with exit poll data to offer insight into the demographics of support for the candidate who has, by many accounts, used social media more effectively than any other candidate for U.S. office, ever. In an exploratory mode, and with caveats in mind about large but biased samples, Shelley and Hitt juxtapose the results of exit polls with the geography of face-book “likes” for Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in overwhelmingly Republican Alabama and Oklahoma. Caroline Nagel’s essay offers an historical lens on the mixed reception of immigrants into Southern communities (Winders 2013; Ehrkamp and Nagel 2014; Steusse and Coleman2014), and the deep ambivalence with which the U.S. as a whole has received refugees over recent decades. In an essay which richly situates conditions in southern states in relation to national discourses and anxieties, Nagel considers how it is that President Obama’s decision to admit a mere 10,000 refugees from critically war-torn Syria “create[d] such a fuss”. Nagel draws on her ongoing research into the reception of immigrants and refugees (Ehrkamp and Nagel 2012, 2014; Nagel 2013) in southern communities to unpack the appeal of national scale anti-Muslim, pro-border control discourses to Southern voters. Finally, Jamie Winders draws on her past work examining the figure of the immigrant within political and organizational discourse (Winders 2011) to sift through the “headlines, debate zingers, and soundbites” of the fractious presidential campaign season. She examines the immigration policy statements of the leading (remaining) candidates for the highest office in the U.S. tracing differential emphases on immigrants as sources of threat, as members of families, and as workers. Winders also notes a temporal dimension to the competing immigration stances of the presidential candidates, evaluating candidates...

Models for Migrant Leadership: The Cape Town Women's Platform

Since 2011, South Africa has increasingly moved toward an immigration system of enforcement and exclusion, seeking to discourage immigration through punitive policies that make daily life for migrants difficult to bear. The closing of refugee reception offices in urban centers and restriction of job offers to South African ID holders have caused many asylum seekers to become undocumented migrants and prevented them from working in the formal economy. In this context, some services that refugee organisations traditionally offer, such as job training and placement, become less useful for migrants who are undocumented and/or unable to work. This paper explores a new initiative of a Cape Town refugee organisation designed to support grassroots organising and to foment new networks of support and entrepreneurship for migrant women. Members of eleven nationality groups currently participate in the Scalabrini Centre Women’s Platform, coming together across differences in migration status, religion, socio-economic class and language to fight the isolation often caused by migration and to support business and personal development. Our research uses interviews and participant observation to explore the role of mediating institutions in facilitating migrant leadership and organising. We suggest that efforts such as The Women’s Platform are setting the groundwork for long-term leadership development among migrants and refugees. Nonetheless, the restrictions of the political and economic climate of South Africa, as well as the professionalised expectations of mediating institutions, make this a slow process that may favor individual advancement over collective action for systemic change.

Fear and (In)Security: The Canadian Government’s Response to the Chilean Refugees

This article examines Canada’s response to the Chilean refugee crisis in 1973. It explores the conditions that made the resettlement of Chilean refugees possible, despite the reluctance of the Canadian government to provide protection for them. The article focuses on the relation between the Canadian overnment’s regulatory discourses and practices on the one hand, and the Canadian public’s contestation of, and challenges to, such discourses and practices on the other. The Chilean refugee crisis revealed that the Canadian refugee protection regime was subject to political ideology, with very little consideration given to the suffering of refugees constructed as a threat to Canadian social, political, and economic well-being. However, civil society played a pivotal role in compelling the government to take a stance toward the refugees, though the government was able to control refugee reception by being deliberately selective about which lives it would save. The visibility and the success of the Canadian public in advocating on behalf of the Chilean refugees demonstrated the potential of this emerging civil power to affect refugee policies and practices while also revealing its limitations.

Waiting for Asylum: Psychiatric Diagnosis in Bavarian Admission Center

In 2014, 15% of about 140,000 asylum seekers were distributed to Bavaria. The Bavarian State Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Family and Integration promoted a project under which, first, the frequency and nature of psychiatric diagnoses among asylum seekers in the ZAE Zirndorf should be examined and, secondly, recommendations on psychiatric-psychological care of asylum seekers should be carried out. A total 283 asylum seekers were examined. The sample was composed of 2 sample groups: self-referrals and a randomized group. A structured diagnostic interview and several self- and external assessment scales were used (MINI, BSI, MADRS, WHO-5, ETI, PSQI). In 180 (63,6%) asylum seekers, one or more psychiatric diagnoses were made. The most common diagnosis was posttraumatic stress disorder (F43,1) followed by depressive, recurrent depressive episodes (F32, F33), adjustment disorder (F43,2) and chronic insomnia (51,0 F). Suicidal thoughts were explored in 26% of self-referrals and only in 6% in the random sample. We recommend a low-threshold psychiatric emergency care for asylum seekers in the central refugee reception facility. This should not be done on voluntary basis, but must be regulated by law. For comprehensive care by national healthcare physicians, the social welfare law on asylum seekers (1993) must be revised.

Evaluation of Cross-cultural Psychiatric Training of Staff in Mental Health Care and Refugee Reception in Sweden

Introduction Education about refugees’ mental health has so far been limited even for students and professionals within the health and mental health care system in Sweden. Further, there is lack of evidence about which training efforts are effective. Objectives Evaluation of the outcomes of locally organised cross-cultural mental health training for staff in refugee reception and health care. Aims This naturalistic study aims a) to examine change in perceived knowledge and perceived barriers to their ability to do a good job among course participants before and after the course; b) Explore participants’ perception of barriers and success factors in encountering mental illness among refugees before and after the course. Methods A mixed method approach, with quantitative data from questionnaires (n = 232) and ten qualitative focus group interviews, was used. Results After training, the participants reported that the hindering effect of lack of knowledge on their work decreased significantly from 2.81 (SD1.22) before, to 2.29 (SD1.00) (p Conclusion Training resulted in an increased experienced capacity among participants to understand the social vulnerability of newly-arrived refugees with mental distress. However, the lack of collaboration and the structural barriers between the different organisations were not affected.

Reception of refugees in Swedish municipalities: evidences from comparative case studies

By focusing on the Swedish municipality level, we provide an intensive examination of how several Swedish municipalities design their local refugee policy, according to which they either accept or do not accept refugees. This can vary because of either instrumental or symbolic reasons. Combining this local perspective with actor-oriented theory, we derive from rationalistic premises concerning how political leaders and bureaucrats act to maximize their interests. By selecting municipalities that share important characteristics except their attitude towards the reception of refugees, we can, through analysing interviews and documents, show how a pragmatic view and internal constraints often shape local decision-making in terms of shaping refugee policy. Rationalistic perspectives do not prevail completely, though implying that other factors influence decision-making in this area.

Approaching the vulnerability of refugees: evaluation of cross-cultural psychiatric training of staff in mental health care and refugee reception in Sweden.

BackgroundThis study evaluates the outcomes of cross-cultural mental health training given to professionals in health care and refugee reception in Stockholm, Sweden.MethodsA mixed method approach, with quantitative data from questionnaires (n = 232) and ten qualitative focus group interviews, was used.ResultsAfter training, the participants reported that the hindering effect of lack of knowledge on their work decreased significantly from 2.81 (SD1.22) before, to 2.29 (SD1.00) (p < 0.001). Focus group interviews contributed to an understanding of this. According to findings from focus group interviews, after training, the participants shifted from emphasising communication barriers towards empathy with refugees with mental ill-health.ConclusionTraining resulted in an increased experienced capacity among participants to understand the social vulnerability of newly-arrived refugees with mental distress. However, the lack of collaboration and the structural barriers between the different organisations were not affected.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1472-6920-14-207) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Do Anti‐immigration Parties Matter? The Case of the Sweden Democrats and Local Refugee Policy

With the increased electoral success of anti‐immigration parties, questions regarding what impact the parties actually have naturally follow. Previous research has rarely explored this question. Furthermore, within this body of research, one is given different answers. While some argue that anti‐immigration parties have made an impact on public policy, others find no such evidence. This article shows that some of this inconsistency is a consequence of the methodological strategies that have been employed. Previous studies are either single case studies or comparisons of a small number of countries. Consequently, different parties in different institutional settings are compared, making it difficult to estimate the actual impact of the party of interest. In order to circumvent such methodological problems, this article explores the question of anti‐immigration party impact on a local level and asks if the Sweden Democrats (SD) have managed to influence decisions on refugee reception in Swedish municipalities. The analysis shows mixed results. First, while unable to find an independent effect of the size of the representation of the SD, it appears that the party's impact is conditioned by them holding the balance of power. Second, the SD's impact is not dependent upon whether there is right‐wing or left‐wing rule, although local migration policy is stricter when the main right‐wing party has strong support.

Deportees in Inadmissible Facility Have Right to Apply for Asylum Abdi and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others 2011 3 SA 37 (SCA)

Since 1994, South Africa has become host to refugees from African continent and overseas. Refugees flee their countries for various reasons, including persecution and insecurity. Under international law and South African law, it is unlawful to deport a person who wishes to claim for asylum. Deporting asylum seekers violates the principle of non-refoulement, which is the most fundamental principle of refugee law. This principle guarantees a person’s right not to be forcibly returned to a place where the person would face a threat of persecution or a real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment. Deportees in inadmissible facility have right to apply for asylum in the Republic of South Africa. They are located in an area that is under the sovereignty of the RSA. Therefore, the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, international conventions and municipal laws governing refugees and asylum seekers apply to such individuals. Once there is an indication to apply for asylum, the officials of Home Affairs have a duty to assist the concerned person to file such application at a Refugee Reception Office. Government officials, who intentionally fail to perform their tasks as provided by the statutes and cause hardship to persons who expect their assistance, should be ordered to pay punitive costs. This will encourage government officials to perform their duties adequately without unreasonable delay. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n13p171

Improving Early Detection of Refugee-Related Stress Symptoms: Evaluation of an Inter-Professional and Inter-Cultural Skills Training Course in Sweden

Twenty-three of 26 participants, mainly women from six local agencies involved in the reception of refugees, completed a university course titled “Refugee-related stress and mental health—local cooperation”, which was spread over seven days in 2011. The course was based on evidence and clinical experience and was commissioned to serve as competency training by Stockholm County Council and Södertälje Municipality. It received funding from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. It was a continuation of an earlier one-week full-time university course from 2010 with the same title. As a result of a new law relating to refugee reception, which led to organizational change, the participants requested a continuation of the original course. The learning objectives were met (5.4 on a 6-point scale; 1 = strongly disagree, 6 = strongly agree). The general assessment of the course as a whole by the participants was 5.7 (on a 6-point scale, 1 = very unsatisfied, 6 = very satisfied). The participants thought that their skills had increased, and their perception was that they had significantly better control of their work situation following completion of the course. The most important findings were that participants from different agencies at the local level: (1) perceived that they had developed the sense that there was a local inter-cultural and inter-professional inter-agency collaboration in the reception of newly arrived refugees and (2) will continue efforts to stabilize and develop this together. This method of teaching, in terms of skills training, is not a “quick fix.” It is a process, and it needs support from those in power in order to continue.

Impossible protest: noborders in Calais

Since the closure of the Red Cross refugee reception centre in Sangatte, undocumented migrants in Calais hoping to cross the border to Britain have been forced to take refuge in a number of squatted migrant camps, locally known by all as ‘the jungles.’ Unauthorised shanty-like residences built by the migrants themselves, living conditions in the camps are very poor. In June 2009, European ‘noborder’ activists set up a week-long protest camp in the area with the intention of confronting the authorities over their treatment of undocumented migrants. In this article, we analyse the June 2009 noborder camp as an instance of ‘immigrant protest.’ Drawing on ethnographic materials and Jacques Rancière's work on politics and aesthetics, we construct a typology of forms of border control through which to analyse the different ways in which the politics of the noborder camp were staged, performed and policed. Developing a critique of policing practices which threatened to make immigrant protest ‘impossible’, we highlight moments of protest which, through the affirmation of an ‘axiomatic’ equality, disrupted and disarticulated the borders between citizens and non-citizens, the political and non-political.

Interpreting for Refugees: “Where practicable and necessary only?”

Legal interpreting is a highly specialized profession, not simply a function that any bilingual person can perform. Countries that have laws and regulations on court interpreting have them on the basis that everyone (including linguistic minorities) has the right to due process. In South Africa legal interpreting takes place in a variety of state institutions and the Refugee Reception Offices of the Department of Home affairs is one such setting. The present study investigates legal interpreting at asylum determinations and hearings. The focus is on two stages of the asylum application, which are crucial for determining refugee status. This paper aims to explore the right of an asylum seeker to an interpreter at these stages of the status determination procedure. It will also compare this right to the existing right in international law and assess whether South Africa has met the minimum requirement to enable a due process.

Culture- and evidence-based health promotion group education perceived by new-coming adult Arabic-speaking male and female refugees to Sweden—Pre and two post assessments

Objective: According to a theoretical approach, events that elicit stress after arrival in the reception country, i.e., post-migration stress, have a negative impact on health-related quality of life among newly-arrived refugees. With the aim of paying attention to such symptoms, a revised culturally-tailored clinical health promotion model developed at Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma was used for invited groups of new-coming adult refugees in a town south of the Swedish capital. Methods: A coordinator administered the five-weekly sessions, 2 hours/week, with a professional interpreter. It covered major topics from Western and Arabic worldviews: 1) introduction; 2) health care: organisation and access to; 3) exercises; 4) stress management and coping, 5) medical doctor-patient communication. Each topic was led by a nurse, a physiotherapist, a psychologist and a physician with experience of encounters with this target group in health care. Data cover results from 70 participants attending six groups; 39 participants with pre-course findings and, post-course and six-month follow-ups. There were no significant differences in background factors between the participants and the drop-outs. Results: Participants’ perceptions of their health, measured by EQ-5D, changed positively over time, above all immediately after the course, with no significant differences between the two follow-ups. In the follow-ups, female participants perceived their health as significantly worse than males. Qualitative data at the six-month follow-up assessed the course as useful but expressed a wish to continue a similar course with a focus on post- migration stress. Conclusion: The results sup- port earlier findings. A course, administered to a small group in a dialogue setting, has value for the participants’ empowerment and perception of health. It is recommended that reception be more adapted to coping of post-migration stress of new-coming refugees. Practical Implications: The results have implications for education in clinical health promotion, intercultural communication and inter-professional collaboration in refugee reception.

Social disability: Roma and refugees in Swedish welfare

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of the disability category in Swedish welfare policies. The paper seeks to focus on two cases that illustrate how the social dimension in the understanding of disability permitted the inclusion of individuals, previously considered as “unwanted strangers”, in the Swedish welfare context. The first case is that of refugees classified as unfit for work after the Second World War. The second deals with the Roma groups who obtained the right of formal Swedish citizenship during the same period.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on data collected during two research projects. The first concerning the Roma policy of the Swedish Government from 1880 to 1970, primarily based on the analysis of public documents collected in the Swedish National Archives, including government reports and accompanying background material. The second research project deals with the development of an institutionalised reception of refugees by the Swedish welfare services after the Second World War. This research mainly uses documents produced during the international negotiations dealing with refugees interned in different camps in Europe and related documents in the Swedish National Archives related to the history of the organised reception of refugees in Sweden. In the case of refugees, the analysis focuses on the construction of disability in the classification system of the international refugee camps and in the organised reception of these refugees in Sweden. In the case of Swedish Roma, the analysis focuses upon the construction of social disability both in the arguments elaborated by Swedish authorities for the inclusion of Roma and in the practical organisation of their inclusion in the Swedish welfare system.FindingsThe paper provides insights about the crucial importance on the disability category in the organisation of Swedish social welfare after the Second World War. The policies developed raise important questions about basic requisites to obtain citizenship and also call into question the unequal conditions of citizenship. The case of Swedish Roma and the refugees interned in international camps illustrated how changing perceptions of poverty and deviance were strongly influenced by medical representations of disease and disability. Disability, previously perceived as a principally medical category with social consequences, now acquired a social dimension that enabled new refugees and Roma groups to be considered as members of the nation state.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is primarily descriptive. Further research is needed in order to develop a better understanding of how the social dimension of disability is constructed and how this social dimension was used to include new groups. The contents focus on the emergence of new social policies in Sweden after the Second World War; further research should focus on how these policies and processes still have a considerable influence on present policies and representations on migrants and Roma groups.Practical implicationsThe paper provides important insights on taken for granted representations in Swedish welfare authorities' work with refugees and Roma groups. The institutionalised representation of Roma and refugee groups as disabled probably is an obstacle in the social incorporation of these groups.Originality/valueBased on two cases the paper discusses how the concept of social disability, with its origins in medical sciences, was adopted by the Swedish welfare authorities and applied to groups considered deviants. In later policies the authorities widened social disability to include culture and ethnicity. Refugees and Roma groups classified as disabled were treated according to established practises created for people classified as unable to be incorporated into a “normal” social life.