2025 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 7(2) to begin with. Through the loss of voting since 2016, their inability to assert their identity leaves them politically disenfranchised and unrecognised in their place of residence. As such, I contend that though Haitians possess the legal status of citizenship, such disenfranchisement and removal of their ability to ‘be self-determining agents’ is adherent with Belton’s concept of rooted displacement.136 Both the de facto and de jure stateless lose Arendt’s prescribed ‘only truly political rights’ (the right to vote and to run for office) because they either lack a national identity or cannot meaningfully effectuate one.137 As such, where Haitians exist without these rights, they also move towards the condition of de facto statelessness. Moreover, even when a Haitian official is democratically elected, the conditions of paternalism and ‘virtual trusteeship’ –– to borrow Fatton’s language –– mean that the governance in Haiti has historically been dominated by Western interests. Where the physical landscape and economy are both dominated by international interests, those in power must remain in the favour of Western powers in order to maintain their positions. As Fatton expresses, ‘[i]n the post-Duvalier era’, leaders such as ‘Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Raoul Cédras, Gérard Latortue, René Préval, and Martelly rose to, remained in, and fell from positions of power depending on their respective relations with France, Canada, and the United States’. 138 Those with power often reflected a position of corruption, wherein ‘[o]ccupying the position of prime minister was ultimately a matter of selling and buying parliamentary votes’. 139 Consequently, Haitians have historically been restricted from the essential right to see themselves reflected politically or shape the governments whose legislation shapes their existence. Such a loss of protection, even in the place of one’s birth, draws a parallel to those with migratory statelessness who lose their home country. This lack of protection, where lost or never present, enforces Belton’s idea of being displaced in situ.140 For Belton, rooted displacement involves an exclusion from the rights, identity and opportunities that only citizenship can provide; the loss of voting rights directly exemplifies this exclusion. Santos confirms this further through his comment that those post-colonial states that dare to ‘break with former colonial powers’ subsequently experience ‘systematic isolation, impoverishment, foreign occupations and interventions in the name of humanitarianism, and the lack of legal migration routes’.141 This is reflected in Haiti post-earthquake, where those affected were barred from stateless or refugee status by the West. More recently, the Trump administration announced that it intends to terminate the Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, exposing Haitians in the US to a loss of legal protections and work authorisation under the claim that it is now safe for the more than 500,000 Haitian migrants in the US to return home.142 During the same period, the entry of Haitian nationals to the US has been suspended as part of a new travel 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 See Belton (n 38) 917. Klabbers (n 129) 3. Fatton (n 7) 169. ibid 121. Belton (n 38). Santos (n 5) 21. ‘US Terminates Protections for Haitians despite Deteriorating Conditions - USCRI’ US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (online, July 2025) <https://refugees.org/u-sterminates-protections-for-haitians-despite-deteriorating-conditions/>, archived at <perma.cc/5V8Q-Q9CZ>. 146