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.

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 ghettoes have been plagued by poverty some desperate mutants have seen them as a welcome refuge from the violence of the cities at large.

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.

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.

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 last week.

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.

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.