Engaged advocacy: a framework for inclusion of people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds in disability policy

This chapter is a human rights-based analysis of policy at the nexus of refugee and disability rights. Research shows that bio-psycho-social, geopolitical, cultural and spiritual factors intersect to create specific vulnerabilities for people with disability from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds. Drawing on the insights of one of our authors with lived experience, as articulated in the companion narrative, and other data we have collected in our research with Syrian and Iraqi families in Australia, we examine different stages in the advocacy journey: emerging advocacy, engaged advocacy and strained advocacy. In doing so, we unpack how disability policy could be more cognizant and inclusive of peoples’ lived experience, and outline five policy recommendations to transform disability policy and practice. Finally, we outline the resources, training and governance structures that organizations must implement to fulfil their human rights obligations to people with disability from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds.