Refusing Refusal
War II. 26 More recently, this position has become somewhat nuanced and
understood as intersecting with other forms of vulnerability and processes of
marginalisation. 27 Statelessness might intersect with refugeeness, but at the same
time, not all stateless people are refugees. Refugeness often implies a condition of
‘noncitizenism’, 28 similar to, but not equal to, statelessness. Citizenship or
nationality (not essentially the same thing) do not necessarily mean freedom from
precariousness. Correspondingly, statelessness in itself does not automatically
mean that a person is in need of protection. 29 Sometimes, a distinction is made
between de jure and de facto statelessness, where de facto statelessness relates to
‘persons outside the country of their nationality who are unable or … unwilling to
avail themselves of the protection of that country’. 30 Thus, their citizenship is
‘ineffective’, 31 but is not protected under the Convention Relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons’ definition of statelessness. 32
Many scholars have acknowledged how citizenship (and thus, also, noncitizenship) is a category that is ‘gradient’, imbricating or differentiated 33 as
citizenship is no guarantee for maintenance of rights. 34 Fluidity and hierarchies
among different legal statuses are manifested through gradual rights related to
residence status. 35 Noncitizens and rightless people are also political subjects. 36
As the Global North is turning its face away from stateless people and other
precarious migrants, 37 the lived experiences of statelessness are transformed in
interactions with refugeeness and migratory processes, creating a complicated
‘nexus’ between different vulnerabilities and identities. 38
Most often, statelessness is treated as a problem to be solved through individual
acquisition of citizenship 39 and only more rarely are the lived experiences of
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Schocken Books 1951) 296–97.
Lindsey Kingston, ‘Worthy of Rights: Statelessness as a Cause and Symptom of
Marginalisation’ in Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip Cole (eds), Understanding
Statelessness (Routledge 2017) 17, 25; Caia Vlieks, ‘Contexts of Statelessness: The Concepts
“Statelessness in Situ” and “Statelessness in the Migratory Context”’ in Tendayi Bloom,
Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip Cole (eds), Understanding Statelessness (Routledge 2017) 35.
Bloom (n 15) 11.
Katja Swider, ‘Why End Statelessness?’ in Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip
Cole (eds), Understanding Statelessness (Routledge 2017) 191, 192.
The Concept of Stateless Persons under International Law (Expert Meeting, UNHCR 27–28
May 2010) [2].
Latif Tas, ‘How International Law Impacts on Statelessness and Citizenship: The Case of
Kurdish Nationalism, Conflict and Peace’ (2016) 12(1) International Journal of Law in
Context 42, 48.
See 1954 Convention (n 21).
Elizabeth F Cohen, Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics (Cambridge University Press
2009) 59. See also Bloom (n 15).
Kingston (n 27) 20.
Stokes-Dupass (n 16) 53.
Bloom (n 15).
See Caroline Sawyer and Brad Blitz, Statelessness in the European Union: Displaced,
Undocumented, Unwanted (Cambridge University Press 2011).
See Sophie Nonnemacher and Ryszard Cholewinsiki, ‘The Nexus between Stateless and
Migration’ in Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (eds), Nationality and Statelessness
(Cambridge University Press 2014) 247; Laura Van Waas and Amal de Chickera, ‘Unpacking
Statelessness’ in Tendayi Bloom, Katherine Tonkiss and Phillip Cole (eds), Understanding
Statelessness (Routledge 2017) 53, 64.
See Laura Van Waas, Nationality Matters: Statelessness under International Law (School of
Human Rights Research 2008); Brad Blitz and Maureen Lynch (eds), Statelessness and the
Benefits of Citizenship: A Comparative Study (Report, Geneva Academy of International
Humanitarian Law and Human Rights 2009).
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