Abstract/Summary

This chapter discusses the situation of migrants with disability and chronic illness and their access to health, social care and welfare support in settlement countries. The links between disability and migration have been generally neglected in the literature to date; often disability is only referred to as a potential outcome of migration because of the association between poverty, poor health, housing and employment conditions amongst migrants. This chapter provides an overview of key conceptual understandings of disability and chronic illness and the policy context. The links between migration, disability, chronic illness and care support are complex, due to shortfalls in existing knowledge and the lack of policy engagement with asylum seekers and refugees with disability and chronic illness, despite their often high care needs. The chapter pays particular attention to the situation of asylum seekers with disability or chronic illness who often have limited entitlements to health, social care and welfare support, drawing on our empirical research on disability, HIV and caring relations among asylum-seeking and refugee families in the UK. Such families face major barriers in accessing appropriate health, social care and welfare support. The unmet care needs of disabled asylum-seekers also impact on informal family carers, including children and young adults, whose substantial caring responsibilities, combined with their restricted entitlements to support, affect their wellbeing, education and transitions into adulthood.