Rethinking Statelessness from Within of the occupation. As discussed above, Haitian governments are forced to pander to the Western bloc, with economic production prioritised at the expense of the environment being one such example. In so doing, a trade-off is made that prioritises extractivism over and above the rights of Haitians to see their own interests reflected by their governments. To return to the issue of voting, without meaningful access to the democratic process, Haitians are unable to fruitfully assert their disagreement with these decisions. In Mezdour, Veronis and McLeman’s study, issues cited included ‘decades of weak government’.155 Others specifically connected this to the lack of policy, infrastructure and assistance for farmers whose livelihood is negatively impacted by the environmental conditions associated with deforestation. Similarly, these farmers are unable to compete with ‘tariff-free food imports’ from Western nations. 156 Consequently, the combined effect of internal environmental conditions and international competition is that rural workers are forced migrate from their homes.157 While much of Haiti’s deforestation crisis can be attributed to indecisiveness on policy, the conditions listed above of international competition, weak governance and poor policymaking remain connected in their shared tendency to disregard the rights of Haitians. The effect of this lack of access to voting means Haitians are subjected to policy decisions that restrict their livelihood. Thus, the governmental decisions which led to this environmental crisis in Haiti are not only administrative missteps but are emblematic of a crisis of de facto statelessness. Though technically protected by their legal nationality, Haitian individuals are forced to endure poverty, food insecurity, job loss, forced internal or external migration, environmental events such as floods and landslides and more in relation to the inefficacy of their government. Unable to assert themselves politically, the Haitian citizen becomes de facto stateless in much the same way as a refugee may in a foreign country. VII CONCLUSION Discussions of statelessness have traditionally been dominated by legalistic frameworks, primarily focusing on those who lack legal nationality. This article, in contrast, has demonstrated the value of shifting focus to the concept of de facto statelessness in the Haitian context. The application of de facto statelessness as a conceptual lens provides epistemic justice to those individuals who, despite possessing legal citizenship, are effectively without the rights, protections and sense of community or belonging that citizenship fulfilment provides. By examining the Haitian experiences through the case studies of the 2010 earthquake and the ongoing absence of democratic voting since 2016, this article contributes to the field by centring an understudied regional context and advances crucial conversations in statelessness and citizenship studies. I have worked to offer a grounded, human-centric framework for understanding the conditions in Haiti as demonstrative of de facto statelessness (utilising the theories of Arendt, Kingston and Belton), while remaining attuned to the colonial and extractive histories which preceded these conditions (utilising Haitian scholars such as Castor, Fatton and Dupuy). 155 Mezdour, Veronis and McLeman (n 104) 108. 156 ibid. 157 ibid 107. 149