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Hello, welcome to another episode of Unpacking Neuroqueerness. This is your

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host George Mooney's Gun. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about ableist

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immigration laws, in particular with two specific countries, Canada and Australia.

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Many people don't realize, but places like Australia and Canada in

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particular will not allow you, they still have laws in place that prevent

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people with developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, such as autism

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and ADHD and many more, to immigrate into their country because they're deemed a

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burden on the taxpayer. And this is addressed in a paper by Roy Haynes, PhD

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associate professor of social work at Carleton University. He wrote a paper

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called None is Still Too Many, an historical explanation, exploration of

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Canadian immigration legislation as it pertains to people with disabilities. And

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there are a few pieces of this that I'd like to read. There's one here. While

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significant legislative changes have been instituted to address

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immigration policies which were once racist, sexist and or homophobic, no

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similar changes have been made to address ableist immigration legislation. As a

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result, Canadian immigration legislation continues to deny or restrict

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immigration opportunities for people with disabilities, as case studies will

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attest. By developing in this history, it is hoped that readers will address

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important questions about the ethics of the continued discrimination

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against potential immigrants with disabilities and the ethics of decision

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making processes which devalue the lives of people with disabilities. Similar to

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previous legislation, the 1967 Immigration Act was rooted in ableism. For

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example, while the white paper suggests that impairments alone should not be

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deciding factor in permission to immigrate to Canada, people with

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disabilities remained within the prohibited class designation. Yes, you

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heard that right. Now, let's move on to Australia. I'm going to read a piece from

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a website Australian Greens which talks about Australia's immigration, ableist

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immigration laws. Australia's immigration system is exempt from the

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Disability Discrimination Act. These discriminatory rules are weaponized and

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ensure that disabled people are treated unfairly. This has led to unjust

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deportations of disabled children born in Australia and denies disabled people

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the opportunity to immigrate here. And there was I also wanted to mention a

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recent case of a Korean family with an autistic son that was born in Australia

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that was being the Australian government was threatening with deportation. I

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believe this was last year. A seven-year-old, this is from 9 News Australia,

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by the way, there's an article on this if you Google Autistic Australian

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Deportation case. It will show up. The title of the article is Autistic

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Australians Condemned Disgusting Visa Decision and disgusting is put in

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quotation marks which upsets me because they were, as I will tell you, they were

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trying to deport this kid just because he had an autism diagnosis and he was

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deemed a burden on the taxpayer. He was born in Australia but has been he had

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Korean parents and he was deemed a burden on the taxpayer causing the

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Department of Home Affairs to deny his family application for skilled regional

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visas. And the Korean family, his entire family was facing deportation after

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living in Australia for more than a decade unless immigration minister Andrew

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Giles or Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neill chose to intervene in the case

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and huge shout out to Australian actress and activist Chloe Hayden who in full

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support of the limb family called on the government to allow them to stay in

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Australia and eventually thanks to her and the work of other autistic

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advocates this family was eventually granted permission to stay in Australia

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but that is one small victory in a very rotten system and this happens to many

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families on a daily basis. This as I just mentioned we have outwardly ableist

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immigration laws still in places like Canada and Australia and these are the

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ones that we know about these are the ones that have been documented because

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ableism is still present in many places and it's not always overt ableism it's

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not always obvious kind of ableism it's not where people openly express that

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they that say that they don't like disabled people or it's it's not just

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that it is systemic it is ingrained it is ableism that people do on a daily

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basis without even realizing that it is ableism and I think that there's there

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are just a lot of people out there that fail to to grasp that they think that

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ableism is just saying that you don't like disabled person or using the R word

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or whatever and it's not it's I mean that is of course a very overt very direct

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kind of ableism I am talking about what I talk a lot about in this podcast and

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I'm what I'm talking about with this when these immigration laws is the

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invisible ableism the the the more succinct ableism the not the ableism

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that the hidden ableism I should say because it's only invisible because

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people don't want to see it hidden ableism is what I talk a lot about on

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this podcast so yeah I just wanted to do a brief episode to talk about these

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shameful disgusting immigration laws and it is just appalling to me it is the

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sad thing is it's not even that appalling that a major news network

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mainstream media such as 9 news would put disgusting when we we talk about they

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put in there they put disgusting in which in quotation marks when we talk

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about like why not just say would know quotation marks after autistic

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Australians condemn disgusting visa decision because that is what it is it

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is outward ableism and there is outward ableism out there and news media

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mainstream media companies they put quotation marks over disgusting because

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that and that implies that they don't necessarily agree that it might mean

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disgusting or that there is a somehow an argument for that not being disgusting

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can we just take a pause and think about that how the way that these

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headlines are written makes you think that it's debatable it makes you think

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that there's a legitimate argument for outright ableism not being disgusting

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that's when I'm also trying to get at when this episode so yeah thank you for

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listening to this episode I hope you were able to learn something from it I

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hope you were able to get something from it and I hope it makes you upset too and

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I hope it encourages you either a disabled person yourself or family or a

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family member or friend or an ally someone that wants to be a true ally to

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disabled people I hope it makes you encouraged to reach out to your your

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local people to like spread the word to advocate for change as well because we

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are tired of carrying the load we need help we can't roll the boat on our own

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and I stress that a lot on this podcast so once again thank you for listening and

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I hope you enjoyed this episode once again and I will see you next time thank