Immigration bans are becoming a hot button issue with President Trump's new order. Many other right-wing governments in other countries are considering similar laws, including post-Brexit Britain. Progressives across the world are fighting these bans, but they have ignored a ban on one other group: The disabled.
Disabled people considered excessive demand
Many of the countries progressives want us to be more like, Canada, Australia, the countries that collectively make up Scandinavia, all have a ban on disabled immigrants. Many applications have a box on what disabilities a person has.
If they have any, it may become next to impossible for them to immigrate.
In Canada for instance, a person can be denied if they "might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services." According to many disabled people who have tried to immigrate there, this is basically used as a coded way to screen them out people out even if they have family in the country. Able-bodied people do not have to prove that they will not one day get a condition that won't result in them needing to use their vaunted health care system. The result is that many families who have kids with things like autism. Cerebral palsy and epilepsy, have to choose between leaving their child behind or not immigrating.
This ended up being the case with Felipe Montoya, a York University professor, who had a son with Down Syndrome.
Though Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said: "diversity is our strength" when talking about Syrian refugees, he has done nothing to resolve this issue. This flies in the face of the U.N. Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities that Canada and countries with similar bans have signed.
Refugees that are disabled often left behind
Even in countries that are taking in refugees from the Syrian Civil War, if they are disabled, they may well be turned away.
This can be a problem since many of the people have injuries like amputations, brain damage, and other things that tend to result. Other times, they can be refused services such as the Disability Living Allowance in the U.K.
This is especially problematic since the disabled often face outright violence in their home countries, In Ghana, for instance, people often torture them for having a "spiritual sickness." Many of them are chained up.
There have even been reports of human sacrifice.
While the possibility of a ban on Muslims on the rise worldwide, progressives shouldn't forget those with disabilities who have been screened out for decades. Even in countries, they think we should model ourselves after.
