DRW in Aimday Disability in Uppsala

The 26th of April, Disabled Refugees Welcome, DRW participated in Aimday Disability at SUF Resource Centre in Uppsala.  

Discussion on disability issues.

Aimday is an initiative to enable professionals working with disability issues, individuals with personal experience of disability and researchers to meet and discuss ways to reduce obstacles in society. DRW participated as the chosen questioner.

The idea behind the initiative is that activities and interest organisations should pave their way into academic research, at the same times as a path will be created for research to reach out to society.

How to improve integration for disabled newcomers?

The Centre for Disability Research At Uppsala University, in collaboration with Region Uppsala, invited the DRW team as well as researchers from different disciplines to discuss the question that DRW believe is of most importance: How can integration of disabled newcomers in Sweden be improved?

Participating researchers were:

  • Rafael Lindqvist, Senior Professor in Sociology with a focus on disability studies
  • Karin Salander, Professor with a focus on intellectual disability research, Uppsala University
  • Afsaneh Koochek from the Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences with focus on nutrition, Uppsala University

Moderator was Agneta Hammering from Region Uppsala.

Huge knowledge-deficiency in society

The issue of, how the integration of disabled newcomers can be improved is essential for DRW. During the project, serious knowledge-deficiency regarding the target group has been proven. All, from politicians, societal institutions, authorities and not least policymakers lack knowledge.

During the dialogue, a deepening of the issue was proposed, for example, by examining and describing how integration works today and which obstacles are hampering the process. Also suggested was making visible the complex of problems with the establishment support which today clearly is organised from the perspective of normative abilities.

For DRW to analyse the inadequacies within the establishment, the researchers believe that DRW first has to identify the points of contact between on one side newcomers with non-normative abilities and on the other side the Swedish Migration Agency, the Swedish Public Employment Service and other authorities.

Problem with establishment

DRW has identified the following issues within the Swedish system of establishment:

  • Deficits in the personal treatment of disabled newcomers.
  • A lack of disability rights perspective in the establishment support, for example, the period for establishment is limited to two years which means that disabled newcomers must find accommodation on their own after this.

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