132 Kingston Using Cohen’s framework, the de facto stateless exist somewhere on the membership spectrum between full and non-citizenship. They are denied the benefits of full and functioning citizenship, facing a plethora of human rights challenges similar to the situation of de jure stateless. Yet they hold legal nationality to a state; technically, they are members of a political community somewhere. The constructed categories of ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups do not fully apply to the de facto stateless, and their legal status contradicts traditional understandings of citizenship related to equality and rights. Although Cohen’s work focuses on the ‘inevitable’ semi-citizenships that occur within bounded state societies, the realities of de facto statelessness highlight her concept’s applicability at the global level. For as long as the world is marked by discrimination and migration ‘push factors’ that limit access to full political membership, the international community will be faced with the issue of de facto statelessness. The question is not whether this problem will continue, but rather how we will address it. 4 De jure Statelessness and Alternatives to Membership Most scholarship and advocacy related to statelessness focus on the de jure variety, when individuals have no political membership – functioning or otherwise – to any country. ‘Nationality is a legal bond between a state and an individual, and statelessness refers to the condition of an individual who is not considered as a national by any state.’17 This problem affects an estimated 12 million people worldwide, although the legal invisibility inherent to statelessness makes data-gathering difficult. The de jure stateless have ‘no legal protection or right to participate in political processes, inadequate access to health care and education, poor employment prospects and poverty, little opportunity to own property, travel restrictions, social exclusion, vulnerability to trafficking, harassment, and violence.’18 The de jure stateless are unable to access the rights and protections provided by functioning citizenship, and their violated ‘right to a nationality’ serves as a root cause for other human rights violations. Experts tend to emphasize the necessity of legal 17 18 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons’ <http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb25729.html> accessed 19 October 2013. Katherine Southwick and M. Lynch, ‘Nationality Rights for All: A Progress Report and Global Survey on Statelessness’, Refugees International (2009) <http://www .refintl.org/sites/default/files/RI%20Stateless%20Report_FINAL_031109.pdf> accessed 17 August 2013. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 127-135