Statelessness: Belonging Nowhere

A stateless person is someone not considered a national by any state. Without nationality, people may be unable to register births, attend school, work legally, open bank accounts, travel or vote. Statelessness arises in several ways: when states dissolve or borders change, when nationality laws discriminate against minorities, when gaps between different countries' laws leave a child with no nationality, and when laws prevent mothers from passing nationality to their children.

Two UN conventions, of 1954 and 1961, address the problem: the first defines the status of stateless people, and the second sets rules to prevent new cases. A prominent example is the Rohingya of Myanmar, largely excluded by a 1982 citizenship law. In 2014 UNHCR launched the #IBelong campaign aiming to end statelessness within a decade; some countries reformed their laws, but the goal was not fully met. Statelessness shows how nationality acts as a 'right to have rights', in Hannah Arendt's phrase.