Preventing Statelessness Among Migrants and Refugees 28 Conclusion Migrants and refugees are often faced with major obstacles to obtain the identity documents needed to navigate their daily lives. If they cannot overcome these obstacles, they live in the ‘illegible’ margins of the state, invisible to the authorities, or are forced to adapt their identities to satisfy the rules and fit into the categories established by state procedures.67 In the past, invisibility could have advantages, but today’s constant requirements for identification leave those without the necessary documents among the most vulnerable. The coping mechanisms found by this research leave real identities distorted or unrecorded, including the connections of children to parents. These children, and the adults they become, are at high risk of statelessness. The commitment of SDG Target 16.9, ‘To provide legal identity for all, including birth registration’, reflects the importance of birth registration for the rights of the child, and the overall objective of the Sustainable Development Goals, to ‘leave no one behind’. The commitment of the Global Compact on Migration to ‘Ensure that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation’, similarly states its concern ‘to empower migrants to effectively exercise their human rights’. But the two commitments leave important questions hanging: what is ‘legal identity’ and what constitutes ‘adequate documentation’? This research project illustrated the complexity of the answers to these questions. If ‘legal identity’ objectives do not take into account this complexity, many will be left vulnerable, and perhaps more vulnerable than they were before. These will include the children and adults left stateless or families separated by the challenges identified in this report. Identification systems have as much potential to exclude as they do to include, and should be designed to reduce these risks. 67 On ‘legibility’, see Scott, Seeing Like a State.