Acknowledgment
First and foremost I would like to thank Professor Martina Caroni who has given me her full support and critical guidance throughout this Ph.D. Above all, I thank her for giving me both the desired intellectual space and freedom, as well as valuable advice and the eventually welcome time pressure, while at the same time shielding me off from professional distractions when serenity was vital.
I would also like to thank Professor Michelle Foster for providing me with the initial spark for this thesis on the refugee status of persons with disabilities. I am further grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for their generous financial support, which enabled my doc.mobility research stays at the Universities of Michigan and Oxford. The University of Michigan provided me with an exceptionally inspiring academic environment and I especially thank Professor Jim Hathaway for his generous time and critical comments in discussions about the fundamentals of this thesis. I would also like to thank Professors Marshall Goldberg and Sherman Clark for inspiring me with their fresh approaches to storytelling in legal writing and the ethical role of lawyers and the law, which enriched my drafting of this thesis. I further thank the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford for providing me with a stimulating inter-disciplinary environment in a picturesque setting and particularly Professors Cathryn Costello and Guy Goodwin-Gill for their time and critical inputs in discussions about this thesis.
I am eternally grateful to the disability rights trainers Abner Manlapaz and Zara Todd for inspiring me with their unabated optimism regarding the disability rights movement and for bringing disability rights to life. They are living proof that this world can be a better place for everyone, irrespective of abilities and impairments. Their attitude of respect for the dignity and human rights of every person has accompanied me ever since.
I especially thank Nesa Zimmermann for being the best dissta (dissertation sister) imaginable, with infinite patience for boundless discussions of theoretical concepts, structural disasters, identity crises and general doctoral qualms. Very special thanks also go to Angela Hefti for implementing with me the possibly most rewarding Ph.D. plan ever and for her relentlessly critical review of parts of this thesis. I further thank Chantal Staehelin for her expedient eagle eyed-lecture of this script and Nina Fargahi for her unwavering friendship also during the most isolated periods of this journey. I would also like to thank Sararard Arquint and Olivier Peter for holding my position during my law firm absences. I thank my friends on the island of Lesvos for the social distraction during my otherwise solitary Ph.D. retreats, and Andri Hinnen for being there and for braving the cold Lesvos winter with me for the first time. Finally, I am grateful to the atmosphere of the woods of the Zurich hills, which provided the necessary calm during the intense final stretch of this journey.