Paper for presentation at the IUSSP International Population - PDF document

Umeå University September 2017 [2017-09-28] Authors (among whom the 1st is corresponding/presenting author): 1. Lotta Vikström , Professor of History | Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) Umeå University | SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden | E-mail: lotta.vikstrom@umu.se 2. Erling Häggström Lundevaller , Dr. in Statistics | Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) | Umeå University | SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden | E-mail: erling.lundevaller@umu.se 3. Helena Haage , Dr. in History | Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) Umeå University | SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden | E-mail: helena.haage@umu.se Paper for presentation at the IUSSP International Population Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, October 28 to November 4, 2017 Session: 909. Migration and Health Organizer : Philippe Bouquier, Université de Montréal [ NB. This paper is work in progress. Please, don’t quote without authors’ permission. ] On how disability interfered with individuals’ migration, life and death in a past population: Demographic evidence from 19th-century Sweden * ABSTRACT Historically, little is known about how disability shaped humans’ participation in work and family which often implied migration. Swedish parish registers digitized by the Demographic Data Base (DDB), Umeå University, enable life course analyses to picture a group long hidden. First, sequence analysis of the trajectories of 8,874 individuals show that disability implied lower levels of work, marriage, parenthood, migration and survival. Second, extending our dataset into 35,109 cases Cox regression models estimate the migration and mortality propensity. Disability significantly impeded relocation and survival albeit with variation across gender and type of disability. We argue that our findings are not only nor directly due to the impairment itself, but also to indirect effects coupled with difficulties and attitudes that disabled people met in society. This jeopardized their socio- economic resources and health across life and makes us discuss their mobility and survival from labeling and ‘healthy migrant’ perspectives. * This study is part of a project headed by Lotta Vikström that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant Agreement No. 647125, ‘DISLIFE Liveable Disabilities: Life courses and opportunity structures across time’, 2016–2021 (see DISLIFE website). This study is also part of another disability project, led by Lotta Vikström, that enjoys funding from one Wallenberg Foundation ( Stiftelsen Marcus och Amalia Wallenbergs Minnesfond ).

Vikström et al., ‘On how disability interfered with individuals’ migration, life and death in a past population’ 1. INTRODUCTION In both past and present-day society, migrations are part of young people’s life as they search for work and income to establish themselves and a family on their own. Historically, little is known about how the health status in terms of disability shaped humans’ life and engagement in work and family which often implied relocations. Contemporary disability studies indicate that disability tend to jeopardize humans’ health status and make them weaker positioned in both the labor and partner market than the ’able’ majority (Arvidsson et al 2015; European Commission 2010; Franklin 1977; Mont 2007; National Board of Health and Welfare Report 2010; Schur et al. 2013). Disability history studies are primarily occupied with analyses of records from health institutions to which some people with disabilities were admitted, or the relatively few number of them recognized in other sources because they deviated from the appearances or behaviors perceived as ‘normal’ at the time (Förhammar & Nelson 2004). Such sources fail to recognize the variety of people with disabilities, many of whom were not institutionalized, and tell little about the lives they led regarding work, family formation, migration and death. The data of this study enable us to analyze the life courses of a large quantity of disabled individuals and to compare the findings with a group of non- disabled. Consequently, we can examine one issue that has been insufficiently investigated both from historical and empirical perspectives, i.e. how humans’ health in terms of disability interfered with individuals’ migration and mortality, and with their involvement in work and family. Thus, our analysis makes a minority group long hidden in society and research come to the fore. 1.1 AIMS OF THE ANALYSIS The aim of this life course study is twofold, one of which is to provide results on disabled people’s trajectories by using sequence analysis of a series of events in their life compared to non-disabled people. The latter function as a control group that helps find out whether and to what extent the five events of: (1) getting a job (1st occupation recorded); (2) marrying (1st union recorded); (3) experiencing parenthood (1st child); (4) migration (1st departure from parish); and (5) premature death, were less present events in the life of disabled people. Second, we estimate the migration and mortality propensities paying higher attention to the former event as this is less investigated both by us and other scholars. To differentiate the findings, we consistently examine if the outcomes vary significantly by gender and disability. 1.2 DISABILITY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOCIETY Being ill or impaired may have a direct negative impact on people’s health which limit their mobility or cut life short in terms of years. However, disability studies of both past and present times show that people with impairments confront difficulties indirectly, not only with immediate respect to a less healthy status or functionality but primarily due to discriminatory attitudes based on social classifications and prevailing norms in society. Being subject to the label of ‘otherness’ tends to limit people’s opportunities to find work and subsistence, or a partner to share life and a family with (Jaeger & Bowman 2005; Kudlick 2003; Solvang 2000). According to Anne Borsay (2005), disabled people in past Britain were denied citizenship through policymaking, which denied them full rights and inclusion in society, causing them to differ even more from ‘abled’ and ‘normal’ citizens. Studies further suggest that the economic modernization in terms of industrialization promoted disabled individuals’ exclusion from society as agricultural work and handicraft were replaced by factory work, having undermined their occupational options and inflicted poverty on them (Barnes, Mercer & Shakespeare 2000; Oliver 1990). In turn, this built on the negative view 2