Foreign Affairs

By and large, many major current events worldwide can be assumed to coincide with real life current events. A brief rundown of some of the state of mutant affairs worldwide can be found here. If you're curious about what it's like for mutants somewhere in particular, leave a comment on the discussion page with your question!

Argentina

The situation in Argentina is volatile. Legally speaking there has not been a lot of government action in one direction or another. There have been a large number of grassroots movements, however, on all sides of the spectrum with regards to mutant rights. Opinions politically and socially are fiercely divided and there are demonstrations of both peaceful and extremely un-peaceful natures quite frequently; while the largest of the groups often call for more civil discussions, Argentina has seen more militant factions on both pro- and anti-mutant sides lately turning to violent direct action to promote their cause.

Australia

The question of mutant registration does keep coming up in Australian goverment; time and again, though, it gets routinely voted down in what is actually a growing, not a shrinking, margin. It's hard to really say whether or not this is because Australia is particularly tolerant on the subject -- certainly on an individual level discrimination exists, and rampantly so -- but as a nation they seem quite uninterested in codifying it into law. They seem quite uninterested in codifying anti-discrimination laws, either; for the most part, Australians seem to want to be left alone to deal with the mutants in their communities as they see fit.

How that might be depends heavily on what communities those are -- in some places where mutants come from families who have lived in the area for generations, they are often simply accepted; in other places, especially mutants in immigrant populations who already see a fair bit of tension for being outsiders, they're treated with intense discrimination or overt violence, and the police seem well content to look the other way.

Austria

Austria functions under a system of extremely regimented segregation, for mutants. Registered and marked on all forms of identification, mutants are not allowed to hold many jobs or even live in many of the same neighborhoods as humans; in rural areas these are less strictly outlined but in cities there are very rigidly designated areas that mutants are permitted to live in. Mutant children are not permitted to attend the same schools -- while there are schools the government has set up for them, these are scarce and underfunded, and many mutant children have no access to education. Higher education, while not denied to them legally, is in practice denied to them as many mutants are severely undereducated to begin with and in practice no higher education in the country will accept them. Violence against mutants is severe -- from the police quite as often as from anyone else, and the punishments for mutants who commit crimes of even the mildest nature is so wildly out of proportion that people have begun calling Austria's judicial system a de-facto second tier of segregation for mutants there.

Canada

In Canada, hate crimes laws cover crimes against mutants, as well; there are no protections against anti-mutant discrimination of any sort, however. Discrimination against mutants tends to be every bit as widespread as it is in the U.S., although there is considerably less in the way of actual anti-mutant violence. There have been a few particularly unpleasant instances, but they tend to be enormous news when they happen simply because they're so infrequent in contrast to the rather more frequently occurring violence across the border in the U.S.

Canada has quietly had, however, their own forays into military experimentation and training camps; so far they haven't made the news.

Chile

Chile has never really had mutant turmoil. They have their share of haters, to be sure, but in this country those haters have always been the nutjob extremists. In fact, Chile pretty much thinks the whole world are nutjob extremists, and doesn't really understand what the rest of the world's problem is. They found the discovery of the X-Gene to be pretty awesome. Genetic status isn't a protected class in Chilean law because it's never really had to be. Anti-mutant discrimination has never been a huge issue. There are hate crimes against mutants just like there are occasionally hate crimes against just about anyone you can think of; the people committing them are fringe extremists and treated accordingly.

Chile mostly wishes the world would grow up, already. Or maybe have a drink. On them.

China

China has taken registration one step further and instituted nationwide mandatory testing for all infants born from 2013 onwards. Additionally, all Chinese citizens displaying mutant abilities, once registered, are taken to compulsory training schools. Mutant abilities are rated and classified by the government; while many mutants, once passed out of the schools, are allowed to return to normal life, many mutants are forced into military service while other mutants with certain abilities deemed useful are often taken aside into a special government program where their abilities can be utilized. All mutants, additionally, can be drafted into compulsory civil service after their training period if a situation arises where their ability has been deemed to be useful. Outside of these approved situations, uses of mutant abilities in daily life are treated quite harshly under the law; in many cases combative use of mutant powers can be punishable by death.

France

France has quite a significant mutant population that they very much do not want there; tensions have been extremely high and their government is doing its level best to drive their mutant immigrant population, especially, out of the country. Laws lately have made it exceedingly hard for mutant immigrants to get and keep legitimate employment, housing, any number of ordinary life tasks; the police have started turning a blind eye to the increasing anti-mutant violence on the streets in many cities as mutant-human tension escalates. Small enclaves of all-mutant communities have been springing up on the outskirts of the cities; though these ghettos have been plagued by poverty some desperate mutants have seen them as a welcome refuge from the violence of the cities at large.

Germany

The German legal system has taken great care to codify equal rights for mutant citizens into law. While there is a mandatory nationwide registration system, discrimination against mutants in housing, employment, or services is illegal and met with harsh penalties if it occurs. Which is not to say that Germany is exactly a beacon of shining welcome to all mutants; they have tightened immigration restrictions to make it, while not outright barred, all but impossible for mutant immigrants to jump the necessary hurdles to immigrate, and those immigrants already in the country are met with high scrutiny -- even small transgressions are often met with deportation. Additionally, mutant citizens who do commit crimes tend often to incur the maximum allowable penalties, even in circumstances when a human citizen in similar circumstances would likely have been treated more leniently.

Ghana

Ghana has the distinction of being, currently, the only African nation who has protected mutants legally as a class. Following intensely brutal riots in the early 2000s that claimed hundreds of lives both mutant and human, Ghana cracked down hard on anti-mutant violence and discrimination both. Today, while spots of trouble still crop up here and there it's dealt with swiftly; overall, anti-mutant hostility here is kept to a minimum and discrimination is illegal.

Socially, while people still might not be comfortable with mutants, memories of the gruesome violence are fresh enough that people very much do not want a repeat of those times -- mutants might not be everyone's favourite neighbor, but people frown more on discrimination and hostility than they do on mutants themselves; so long as mutants aren't causing trouble, they don't want anyone starting trouble with them, either.

Iceland

Iceland is one of the exceedingly few places on earth with strict legal protection against anti-mutant discrimination codified into law. This only applies to Icelandic citizens, though -- and in anachronistic discrimination in tandem with this egalitarian law, Iceland has flat-out barred citizenship (though not residence) to mutants who were not already born citizens. For all the legal protection, there is a small but very vocal political party with rather extreme anti-mutant views and while overall Iceland is considered one of the better places to live as a mutant, intermittent hate killings have been on the rise with the growth of a human supremacist branch of this minority party.

India

While far from welcoming place socially for mutants, there's not widespread government-level discrimination yet, either. Mostly because the government hasn't quite gotten around to tackling the mutant issue at any level yet, so any kind of legal discrimination -- or protection -- has yet to be codified into law. Socially, mutants still face intense discrimination countrywide, meet heavily with ostracization and poverty in the cities and rather gruesome beatings or lynchings almost everywhere. Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh have seen fairly intense rioting while in Uttarakhand there has been a rather violent movement to just forcibly drive their mutant population out to neighboring states. Conversely, more recently there's been a small but fervent Hindu religious movement springing up, so far more widespread in the south than the north, that reveres mutants as minor deities.

Italy

Plagued by extremist hate groups throughout the north, much of Italy's mutant population has elected to flee to the southern half of the country. It's not entirely better there, a population still overall hostile to the very idea of mutants, but in the south many of the organized crime families that have old blood in the region have old mutant blood in the region, and while this isn't exactly a fact they widely advertise, they do help make sure that the worst of the bloodshed isn't all targeted at mutants. Around here, though, even all the other freaks tend to hate the freakiest of freaks -- pretty much wherever you go in the country everyone can't stand the most obvious of physical mutants and it's rare to even see them, whether it be because they've already been killed or they're just doing a really good job of hiding themselves so that they won't be.

Israel & Palestine

Israel's policies towards mutants have largely revolved around the military. Mutant citizens of Israel must serve their military time just like everyone else; there is, in fact, a mutant-specific unit in the military where mutant soldiers have additional training drills and special missions. In general society there's a high level of distrust and hostility surrounding mutants, but as in many aspects of society this tends to get embroiled in religious conflict as much as it does genetic. Mutants are still welcomed to immigrate into Israel -- so long as they are Jewish.

The tensions in Israel-Palestine relations are only reflected moreso in the dealings with Palestinian mutants, who bear a severely disproportionate brunt of violence.

Japan

Japan has taken a quietly very orderly approach to their mutant population; they were registering them before registering them was cool. Anyone discovered to have mutant powers is mandatorily documented with their government's bureau of Mutant Affairs; additionally, there are special government-run facilities where mutants go for compulsory education and training in the control of their abilities and the responsibility they have to society to keep their powers controlled and well-hidden and only used in certain -- generally work-appropriate -- places without drawing attention to themselves.

Displays of mutant ability outside of approved contexts are intensely frowned on, seen as a shameful spectacle; in most situations it is the display of mutancy more than the actual fact of being a mutant that results in societal repercussion. Mutants who are seen as not knowing their place often face intense backlash, both from their families and in employment situations, while “ostentatious” public displays of mutant powers face legal consequences frequently.

Latveria

Latveria has implemented mandatory mutant registration. All forms of identification state whether their holder is a mutant. Failure to register as a mutant is grounds for indentured service in the deep level of the mutant research facility.

Mexico

Mexico's government at the moment seems to largely be hoping if they maybe ignore the mutants they'll go away. There hasn't been a single piece of anything passed or even mentioned to do with mutant issues as yet. In some ways Mexico might be an alright place to be a mutant, so long as you're a strong one; there are some very intensely powerful mutant gangs that have amassed quite a bit of territory for themselves in parts of Mexico and are carving out a hefty chunk of drugs and weapons trade. If you're not a strong or useful one, mostly it's just a good idea to keep your head down and stay out of everyone else's way. The mutants who people aren't scared of, they mostly just wish would go away.

The Netherlands

Though legally speaking the Netherlands has taken a somewhat laissez-faire attitude towards mutant rights and legal protections for mutants are not overly strong, by comparison to many places on earth they're doing quite well. There are laws against anti-mutant hate crimes, though not anti-discrimination laws. Societally, there is certainly a very vocal minority that is exceedingly anti-mutant, and a larger base of those just distinctly discomfited by them, but overall the attitude here tends to be by and large quite tolerant. Though there's certainly people who'll be met here and there with bullying and even violence, these stories are likely to be met with horror rather than be the norm; overall, people have a kind of attitude that so long as mutants are keeping themselves under control, why should it be anyone's problem but their own.

Much of the tension in the Netherlands around the mutant issue lately has been coming from mutants themselves; a radical group of mutant supremacists trying to organize mutants to push for more aggressive laws favouring themselves.

North Korea

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea denies having any mutants within its borders.

Pakistan

Pakistan currently has two sitting members of their National Assembly who were openly mutant at the time of election, making them the only country yet to have actually elected mutants to such high office. Public opinion is fiercely divided as to how to deal with mutant issues; as yet, there hasn't been a lot of legislation about it one way or another. In the cities violence is frequent; in the rural areas mutants are more likely to simply be faced with ostracization and a lot of fear.

Romania

Romania's mutant population has dealt with severe hostility, a long history of violence, and a long struggle for what little rights they had; back in the early 90s they had a fight just to be allowed to stay in the country at all, and three years back there was a long spate of intense riots that grew quite bloody.

This past year Romania had a fierce and controversial battle, recently, about whether or not to institute mandatory registration. Registration passed very narrowly in early February, with a vocal minority opposed but strong support from its majority party.

Mid-February 2014, in the week following registration, there were riots, with mutants who had just registered being dragged out of their homes and burned in the streets. Romania's current mutant population is -- considerably lower than it was before registration passed.

Russia

Russia's laws surrounding mutants are, on the books, very highly restrictive. Mutants are outright banned from not only the public use of their powers but from participating in a wide range of public life. Marriages or, indeed, any romantic or sexual relationships between mutants and humans are forbidden. Mutants are required to be registered, and to check in regularly at mandatory Education Centers for compulsory training. The penalties for committing crimes for mutants are very steeply higher than they are for humans.

In practice, though these laws exist on the books, they tend to be rarely enforced; mutants who can pass for human are, by and large, left alone by the police so long as they register and show up to their Education Center courses when an official happens to be in town to check up. Most people consider the laws a bureaucratic nightmare and past that kind of a joke.

For mutants who cannot pass for human, though, these laws tend to be enforced to the letter; there's a pretty steep divide in the treatment of "freaks" and the rest of the more human-looking mutants, and mutants with overt physical mutations find these laws being upheld very strictly. Mutants who look human but elect not to keep their heads down -- flagrant use of powers in public, making themselves very noticeable -- will often find themselves given the same treatment.

Socially speaking, there's a large amount of fear and superstition revolving around mutants. Many people believe that radioactivity has something to do with the emergence of mutations and there's some level of danger in being around mutants too much; though there's been spots of violence here and there more often than not people largely either shun them or grudgingly tolerate them, so long as they don't hang around too much.

Switzerland

Switzerland's immigration policy is extremely restrictive, not only forbidding mutants from gaining citizenship but forbidding mutants from ever gaining resident status, either. There's a growing radical anti-mutant movement that human rights groups call a hate group -- though they deny it publicly, many of their members are responsible for an increasing number of violent attacks on mutants throughout the country. Once a minor fringe element, in recent years they've gained popularity; an associated political party is predicted to secure several Assembly seats in the next elections.

Syria

The mutant situation in Syria is alarmingly not tense at all. For a while in the past decade it was a fierce struggle that nearly came to a minor civil war when some of their mutant population started to fight back against the severe violence and discrimination they faced. Syria has since instituted mandatory registration of mutants; all mutants now have been incarcerated in highly secure designated labour camps. The punishment for trying to hide from the registrars is death, though the rumours of the horrible conditions in some of the camps have made some mutants still elect to attempt to stay in hiding.

Thailand

The social climate in Thailand when it comes to mutants is not quite as severe as it is in some other parts of Asia. While it's far from welcoming, people tend to react with uncertainty and caution and mistrust more than overt hostility. Discrimination is highly rampant, especially against strangers, but violence is infrequent.

U.K.

The X-Gene was first identified at a research institute in Scotland, which subsequently (in 1980) became the first country to require mutant registration (this law was subsequently overturned in 1986.) The U.K.'s history with mutants has been rocky ever since. Their own version of Prometheus never caused the same level of controversy, mainly because it was shut down for lack of funding before any media attention (but not before it had killed quite a large number of mutants); a slightly less gruesome experimental military training venture is still ongoing.

Politically, any measures seen as too lenient are in the current social climate veritable career suicide, so politicians tend to be in somewhat of an arms race to see who can be toughest on mutants. England's own version of registration is likely to pass sooner rather than later, though its measures are more stringent than the U.S. incarnation -- more similar to the sex offender registry, people will be able to publicly look up where mutants live and what their powers are.

Wales and Scotland are both dealing with pretty severe violence issues from extremist groups on both sides. England's problems run more towards human/mutant gang violence, but even that has been growing rather intense. Northern Ireland has been looking at all the chaos and mostly just calling it Tuesday.

Vatican City

In the tiny sovereign city-state in the center of Italy, there's hardly a large population to rule over, but the example set there has ripple effects for the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Pope Francis has since his election been causing all kinds of uncomfortable ripples -- not least of which is that his current Cardinal Secretary of State is himself an open mutant -- known to the Pope prior to his appointment but not out to anyone else until quite recently. An appointed office rather than an elected one, he is still an open mutant in a high government position and a high religious one, which has pissed off no end of people. The Pope himself has advised the clergy to be accepting of their mutant congregations (a practice which has caused waves all the way down to showdowns such as Harlem -- far from the only church-state confrontation around the world) though whether or not they follow through on this is very much a matter of individual churches; many of the congregations more used to more traditional ways under the last Pope (who was far less accepting in his opinions on mutants) are still quite unwelcoming.

Vietnam

The status of mutants in Vietnam is an odd one. They have had mandatory registration for some while now, and have, subsequently, established a number of mutant communities throughout the country where mutants, once registered, are frequently (but far from always) assigned to go live and work on any number of projects in a variety of different fields. While human rights groups outside the country have taken severe issue with what they are calling essentially mandatory segregated work camps, and rights groups within the country have also organized against it -- which has landed quite a few activists in jail as political prisoners -- many of the mutants actually assigned to these communities (which are not in fact highly segregated or fortified but tend to be more like a small block or two within a city, or a small enclave in a rural area, depending on their specialization) do not have much problem with the moves. Unlike the horror stories coming out of many other countries, these homes are quite well-appointed, their positions typically very well-paid, and their families more than welcome to move with them; while outsiders see these forced assignments as some terrible violation, the mutants selected often see it as a boon.

Socially, there is also somewhat of a divide in the treatment of the mutants assigned to these projects -- who are seen as providing a civil service to the country -- and ones who haven't been selected for work, who are largely just seen as being useless at best and potentially a threat at worst. Mutants selected for service gain social status and a fair amount of respect in their communities, while elsewhere mutants are treated largely with suspicion.

Physically mutated individuals tend to receive the worst of all treatment, often reviled with a good deal of horror -- many people react to them with a fair bit of superstition, treating them as some form of monsters or demons; they are often driven out of communities, and have an exceptionally hard time finding places to live, much less work.