Showing papers on "Statelessness published in 2017"

Trapped in statelessness: Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Abstract: The Rohingya people are one of the most ill-treated and persecuted refugee groups in the world, having lived in a realm of statelessness for over six generations, and who are still doing so. In recent years, more than 500,000 Rohingyas fled from Myanmar (Burma) to neighboring countries. This article addresses the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, with special emphasis on the living conditions of this vulnerable population. We reviewed several documents on Rohingya refugees, visited a registered refugee camp (Teknaf), collected case reports, and conducted a series of meetings with stakeholders in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh. A total of 33,131 registered Rohingya refugees are living in two registered camps in Cox's Bazar, and up to 80,000 additional refugees are housed in nearby makeshift camps. Overall, the living conditions of Rohingya refugees inside the overcrowded camps remain dismal. Mental health is poor, proper hygiene conditions are lacking, malnutrition is endemic, and physical/sexual abuse is high. A concerted diplomatic effort involving Bangladesh and Myanmar, and international mediators such as the Organization of Islamic Countries and the United Nations, is urgently required to effectively address this complex situation.

Unsettled belonging: educating Palestinian American youth after 9/11

Abstract: At the crossroads of political turmoil, statelessness, and globalization, Palestinian American youth negotiate their sense of a transnational belonging and citizenship as Palestinians and Americans...

Unpacking the Presumed Statelessness of Rohingyas

Abstract: The decades-old Rohingya problem, which has affected Myanmar and other Southeast Asia countries, has long been defined in terms of forced migration, statelessness, and humanitarian crisis. As the p...

Birth Registration and Protection for Children of Transnational Labor Migrants in Indonesia

Abstract: Policies on transnational labor migration do not consider workers' needs as parents or the rights and welfare of their children, including a child's right to an official identity through birth registration. A study of birth-registration decision making by migrant parents in Lombok, Indonesia underscored the need for targeted responses to uniquely challenging circumstances and priorities of migrant parents. Free birth registration through birthing and health centers and village-level leaders can overcome problems of decentralized implementation of national strategies and an exploitive registration brokerage industry, mitigating risks of de facto statelessness for children and a multigenerational pattern of undocumented and unsafe migration.

Palestinians and the Arab Uprisings: political activism and narratives of home, homeland, and home-camp

Abstract: This article examines the ways in which Palestinians have been affected by the Arab Uprisings and their aftermath, especially in light of their statelessness and protracted refugeedom. It does so by analysing the narratives of 49 Palestinians who were based in France, Sweden, and the UK at the time of interview between 2012 and 2014. We show that the forms of mobilisation and/or identifications that Palestinians in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and beyond engaged in with regard to the Arab Uprisings, transcended the link between the host state and the homeland. They extended to a plurality of in-between spaces such as Palestinian refugee camps, Arab host states, and Arab countries experiencing the uprisings. We argue that these in-between spaces became salient to broader conceptions of Palestinian identity and activism because Palestinian-ness is shaped not only through attachment to place, but also through particular experiences that are associated with Palestinian identity.

Contested Statelessness in Sabah, Malaysia: Irregularity and the Politics of Recognition

Abstract: UNHCR's current #IBelong campaign presents stateless people as uniquely excluded, emphasizing the need for legal solutions to their situation. Such approaches to statelessness sidestep both the complexities of lived experience and the wider politics of state recognition. In response, this article utilizes ethnographic data from Sabah, Malaysia, and theorizations of the gray areas between citizenship and statelessness to argue for the fundamental connection between statelessness and irregularity. Such a connection is central to understanding both the everyday lives of potentially stateless people and Sabah's public discourse on statelessness as a mirage obscuring the problems of “illegals” and “street children.”

The construction of Israeli Citizenship Law: Intertwining political philosophies

Abstract: Because of the significance attached to it, the Knesset passed the 1950 Law of Return in an unprecedentedly short time, but it took two more years to pass the Citizenship Law. The official protocols regarding the legislation of Israel’s Citizenship Law illuminate the main concerns of the drafters. The goal of the emerging national citizenship regime was not just to promote Jewish immigration but to establish a modern state that prohibited dual citizenship, accepted naturalizations, prevented statelessness, and granted equal citizenship to women. These policies are accumulations of countless opinions, values, interests, and ideas, each with different conceptions of citizenship and nationhood.

Mass Migration, Tightening Borders, and Emerging Forms of Statelessness in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

Abstract: This article examines the respective Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish responses to the Syrian refugee crisis. Using the framework of Hannah Arendt's theories on statelessness, I explore recent legisl...

European Citizenship after Brexit: Freedom of Movement and Rights of Residence

Abstract: This paper investigates European citizenship after Brexit, in light of the functionalist theory of citizenship. No matter its shape, Brexit will impact significantly on what has been labelled as ‘one of the major achievements of EU integration’: citizenship of the Union. For the first time an automatic and collective lapse of status is observed – a form of involuntary loss of citizenship en masse, ex lege, for EU citizens of exclusively British nationality that, however, does not create statelessness and is likely to be tolerated under international law. This loss of citizenship is connected to a reduction of rights, affecting not solely the former Union citizens but also current Union citizens, such as second country nationals in the United Kingdom and their family members. The paper comes in six sections. The first section sets the problem of legal uncertainty afflicting second country nationals in the United Kingdom and British citizens turning from expats to post-European third country nationals. The second section explains why a theoretically informed inquiry is needed. The third section describes the theory and delineates three ways in which it applies to Brexit. These three directions of inquiry are developed in the following sections. The fourth section focuses on the intention of Union citizenship: Which rights can be frozen? The fifth section determines the extension of Union citizenship: Who gets to withdraw the status? The key finding is that while Member States are in principle free to revoke the status of Union citizen, former Member States are not unbounded in stripping Union citizens of their acquired territorial rights. In the final section some conclusions as to the nature of Union citizenship are drawn. Policy-suggestions are summed up in a table at the end.

Jus Soli and Statelessness: A Comparative Perspective from the Americas

Abstract: The New World is comparatively generous in the law’s provision of citizenship to all persons born within national boundaries, including the children of undocumented persons and temporary visitors. A striking feature of citizenship practices in the Americas is the near uniformity of reliance on jus soli. Indeed, the jus soli principle “has primarily become a Western Hemisphere tradition.” The predominance of jus soli is said to account for the relatively low rate of statelessness in the Americas compared with other parts of the world. But the definitions of “stateless” in international law instruments and in practice lack precision and thus confound easy measurements of political, civic, and economic status. Even jus soli laws that are meant to ensure that people are not born stateless depend on the willingness of a marginalized population to register a birth or for nations to recognize that birth based on the time that undocumented parents reside in the country. In this lead chapter I explore the limitations of the international legal definition of statelessness in order to illustrate two points. First, what should be termed “effective statelessness” is a necessary adjunct to the concept of de jure statelessness. Without this conceptual pairing, we cannot judge the actual relationship between a state and those who belong to it. In the Americas, as I will show, a substantial number of persons entitled to citizenship cannot prove it, or such proof is disregarded by government officials. At the same time, these persons do not qualify for protection under international law because they are not legally “stateless.” Second, without some measure of “effective statelessness,” claims that the Americas should be viewed as a relative success story because of the jus soli norm are questionable. Jus soli prevents statelessness only where it is accompanied by meticulous and generally recognized documentation. Effective statelessness can exist in any nation, and it is a hidden problem in the Americas, jus soli notwithstanding. Effective statelessness occurs due to poor documentation of births and administrative ineptitude, as well as intentional discrimination. In the Americas, including the United States, the predominant reasons for effective statelessness include inability to prove nationality, as well as the failure of countries to document or recognize their own citizens. International law treaties on statelessness fail to provide a sufficient safety net and thus offer no meaningful remedy to the problems of ineffective citizenship addressed here.

Blood or soil, which one is thicker? : the obligations of EU member-states for the international protection of stateless children

Abstract: Statelessness has grave implications for the lives of millions of children across the globe. Without a nationality, children cannot have their rights effectively protected, despite the international protections enshrined in the Stateless Conventions. Whilst the UN launched a Global Action campaign to eradicate statelessness, many children seeking refuge in the EU are classified as having ‘undetermined’ nationality. These children grow up in limbo, completely unprotected. The aim of this dissertation is to critically evaluate the existing safeguards aimed at preventing childhood statelessness, while assessing EU Member States compliance with them, both in law and in practice. The main argument advanced in this dissertation is that the discretion afforded to Member States in this field allows for double-standards for the type and extent of protection granted to children. Consequently, it is advanced that the only way to effectively address this issue is by adopting a holistic child based-rights approach at the EU level and an independent monitoring system that helps harmonise the practice of Member State and ultimately ensure a child’s right to nationality, especially when otherwise stateless.

Non- and dedocumenting citizens in Romania: Nonrecording as a civil boundary

Abstract: This article explores state practices in Romania that lead to the non-, de-, and redocumenting of tens of thousands of inhabitants. Unlike state practices of (non)recording aliens (asylum seekers, refugees, undocumented migrants), the scale of dedocumenting native citizens in Romania exposes a deliberate and systematic modality of governance through exclusion from state records. Th ese practices of citizenship dispossession lead mostly to the gender discrimination of marginalized women and the racial exclusion of Romani ethnics. People who were born and live on the state’s territory become de facto stateless. By scrutinizing state regulations and institutional practices, this article unravels the logic of dedocumenting citizens, a process that allows state actors to select those who belong to the nation on the basis of criteria that are incompatible with basic civil and human rights. Th is selective modality of recording endows state actors with crucial and direct control over the political and economic lives of undocumented citizens.

Recovering from statelessness: Resettled Bhutanese-Nepali and Karen refugees reflect on the lack of legal nationality

Abstract: The very notion of international human rights relies on state governments to serve as the legal “duty bearers” for protecting rights, yet governments are often responsible for creating the conditions that necessitate mass displacement. For some refugees, the lack of legal nationality creates an added dimension of vulnerability that exacerbates suffering. In order to illustrate the human rights challenges inherent to statelessness, this article focuses on the lived experiences of 30 formerly stateless refugees who have been resettled to the United States. Qualitative research interviews with 15 Bhutanese-Nepalis and 15 members of the Karen ethnic minority (from Burma and Thailand), all currently resettled in the United States, provide insights into the everyday realities of stateless individuals. In both cases, statelessness represented a human rights violation in itself as well as a contributing factor for further abuses related to recognition and membership, denied education, and serious impedime...

China’s Hidden Children: Negotiating Documentation Denial and its Impact on a Population at Risk of Statelessness

Abstract: The author has removed some images from the electronic version of this thesis due to copyright restrictions. The unabridged version can be consulted, on request, at the University of Leicester Library.

Reality or pretense? Renouncing nationality and organized hypocrisy of the sovereignty of Taiwan

Abstract: Adopting Krasner’s thesis of organized hypocrisy, this research examined the institution of sovereignty in regard to the naturalization of migrant spouses in Taiwan. Using migrant spouses as a case...

The Extraordinary Statelessness of Deepan Budlakoti: The Erosion of Canadian Citizenship Through Citizenship Deprivation

Abstract: As part of the larger trend towards “securitization” of citizenship, citizenship deprivation in Canada is becoming increasingly normalized, resulting in some cases in statelessness. In this article, I pursue a sociology of statelessness by examining its localized production and connections to a broader network of social and material relations. I do this through a case study of Canadian-born Deepan Budlakoti, who at age 22 was informed that he was in fact not Canadian, and lacking any other citizenship, was rendered stateless. Actor-Network Theory is employed to trace how it is that legal documental and heterogeneous networks of humans and things (e.g., a “legal technicality”) have been enrolled to produce a legal decision declaring that Budlakoti, despite his Canadian birth certificate and passports, was never a Canadian citizen. Yet because he has not exhausted all avenues to acquisition of some citizenship (e.g., in India or Canada), he also has failed to secure recognition of his statelessness. A particular innovation in this analysis is the exploration of the exemption in the Canadian Citizenship Act from jus soli citizenship for children born to foreign diplomatic staff. Networks of immigration tribunal and court judgements, and documents treated as evidence have connected and translated into establishing Budlakoti’s fit with this exemption, despite countervailing evidence and a lifetime of documented and state-assisted reproduction of his Canadianness. While robbed of his legal and social identity, and suffering the egregious consequences of statelessness, Budlakoti continues to campaign for restoration of his right to have rights within his country of birth.

Better must come: Citizenship and belonging after statelessness

Abstract: In light of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee’s global #IBELONG Campaign to end statelessness by 2024, this paper examines the benefits of citizenship acquisition among Sri Lanka’s previously stateless Up-Country Tamil population. From 1948 until 2003, the Up-Country Tamil population was stateless and excluded from the Sri Lankan political process, though with the 2003 grant of citizenship Sri Lanka was celebrated as an example of what it means to successfully end statelessness. Using a liberal theory of citizenship extended by the Rancierian concept of dissensus, and based on qualitative interviews and questionnaire surveys conducted in Sri Lanka between July and August 2016, this paper identifies potential shortcomings of citizenship acquisition that clash with the promise of the #IBELONG Campaign and the narrative of Sri Lanka’s success in ending statelessness: a rural rights deficit and a shared absence of belonging despite the acquisition of citizenship.

Being Stateless and the Plight of Rohingyas

Abstract: It is wholly within the power of every concerned government to resolve statelessness. We have the opportunity, as never before to tackle the injustice. Now is the time to act.—Antonio Guterres (Hig...

Life in de facto statelessness in enclaves in India and Bangladesh

Abstract: Drawing on conceptualization of statelessness and ethnographic research on crucial insights of rightessness, this paper investigates how the politico-geographic-legality constructs statelessness in the enclaves in India and Bangladesh. Following the decolonization process in 1947, both India and Pakistan/Bangladesh inherited more than 200 enclaves, which comprise 80 per cent of the world's enclaves. With improved bilateral relations, India and Bangladesh officially exchanged the enclaves on 1 August 2015, and the enclave dwellers will gradually be granted citizenship rights over the next few years. In this period of transition from statelessness to statehood, this paper can be read as contemporary history. This paper will draw attention to three aspects of statelessness. First, conceptualization of statelessness not only applies to the refugeehood or de-territorialization of people but also relates to the process of constructing transterritorial stateless people. Second, this paper will discuss the condition of statelessness constructed in a politico-geographic-legal trap. And finally, the paper calls for a wider empirical and critical focus on the hidden geographies of de facto statelessness.

Autonomy as State Prevention: The Palestinian Question after Camp David, 1979–1982

Abstract: The context of Israel’s post-1967 rule over the Palestinian territories, which began well after the end of empire, the mandates, and the major waves of decolonization, sheds new light on the relationship between late-twentieth-century occupation and the persistence of prolonged statelessness. This essay examines how a particular practice within the political and diplomatic repertoire of transformative occupation—the promotion of local autonomy—was successfully deployed in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. It charts the emergence of autonomy from the time of the 1978 Camp David Accords and delineates its broader impact as a tool of state prevention curtailing Palestinian sovereignty until today.

Scaling Statelessness: Absent, Present, Former, and Liminal States of Somali Experience in South Africa

Abstract: This study analyzes how Somalis in South Africa perceive states and statelessness, and how their assertions of authority based on statelessness come into confrontation with competing antiforeigner claims, producing differentiated spatial domains of opportunity. Claims to the legal condition of statelessness provide putative Somalis—including other eastern African migrants who embed themselves in Somali-dominated neighborhoods and economic networks—protection as refugees in South Africa. Nevertheless, statelessness takes on multidimensional and competing meanings as South Africans accuse refugees of embodying the chaos attributed to their countries of origin, and as migrants mobilize claims to belonging that describe forms of stateness as differentially present and absent rather than uniformly encompassing. Somali migrants’ experiences in urban South Africa's segregated landscapes highlight ways in which assertions about state presence and absence travel across scaled spatial frames (from nation-states to migrant neighborhoods and individual bodies), and shape patterns of collective action and opportunity within differentiated spaces. Foregrounding assertions involved in scale- and place-making imaginaries, I argue that statelessness, like the state, may at times function as an assertion that generates spatial domains and structures life opportunities in these domains.

The Risk of Statelessness: Reasserting a Rule for the Protection of the Right to Nationality

Abstract: A global effort to combat statelessness and defend the universal right to nationality is currently underway. Nevertheless, questions persist about the proper scope of the right to nationality, the appropriate form of statelessness protection, and the legal limits of state discretion to deny or deprive an individual of nationality. These questions have animated a heated transnational debate about statelessness in Hispaniola, where the government of the Dominican Republic has designed a legal system that excludes persons of Haitian descent from Dominican nationality. Central to this conflict is a question about whether actions by the Dominican state leave persons of Haitian descent stateless—without nationality anywhere in the world. This question has been the subject of a decade-long dialogue between the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Dominican justice system, which have expressed manifestly contrary views about the existence of statelessness in Hispaniola. In its most recent decision on the matter, the Inter-American Court declared that the Dominican state has an obligation to grant nationality to children born in its territory who face a “risk of statelessness.” This Article is the first to explore this doctrinal development, and it raises both legal and practical concerns regarding this new rule of protection. This Article warns of potential parallels between the “risk of statelessness” and “de facto” statelessness, which is a category unprotected under the international law of statelessness. It argues for the continued use of legal statelessness as the definitive trigger for statelessness protection and for the establishment of a standard of proof that will permit a determination of statelessness for persons who have disputed or unresolved nationality claims.