A handicapped refugee, in addition to suffering the loss of ties with his family, country, and national community that all refugees face, has, in addition, the stigma while living in a refugee camp awaiting emigration, of being labelled 'unemigrable'. He must then often decide whether to break up his family, by sending away those members who can leave, or have them all suffer the physical and moral degeneration inherent in refugee camp life.
Only the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, Switzerland and France have emphasized the successful integration of badly handicapped refugees into their communities.
Handicapped refugees have proven adaptable in new countries and modern medical methods and modern methods of rehabilitation permit the fairly rapid re-adaptation of handicapped individuals to the requirements of modern societies in developed countries.