PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia Materials and methods Study design This paper focuses on the undocumented and non-citizen children in Malaysia, including refugee and asylum-seeker, migrant, and stateless children. International students and children of expatriates were excluded from the analysis. We conducted a desk review of relevant literature and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. Framework analysis was conducted to identify, define, and contextualise different categories of undocumented children at risk of education exclusion in Malaysia. Policy document reviews and qualitative analysis of stakeholder interviews allowed identification of issues and the implementation of policies. The findings presented in this paper were part of the broader study on non-citizen access to education in Malaysia. Data collection and analysis We gathered academic journals, legal documents related to the right to education and citizenship, and policy documents relating to education provision for documents reviews. Reports from governmental agencies, international and local organisations were also gathered from official websites between June 2020 to June 2021. For the qualitative component, data collection was conducted from June 2020 to March 2021. Semi-structured interview guides were initially developed based on our desk review. The interview guides contained introductory questions to understand participants’ backgrounds and to contextualise non-citizen groups. Open questions were asked on education policies relevant to non-citizen children. These guides were developed for three main categories of interviewees: (a) teachers and educators, (b) parents and migrant representatives, and (c) policymakers and high-level stakeholders. We customised interviews according to the background of the interviewee. Minor revisions were made to the guide after initial reflections from the earlier interviews; see S1 File for interview guides. Participants were mainly recruited from LinkedIn, the professional networking website and through a snowball sampling technique. No further recruitment was made when the data does not yield additional insights. Participants were invited by telephone or email. Research information sheets and consent forms were sent before the interviews. We purposefully interviewed stakeholders to represent the diversity of experiences of different populations throughout Malaysia. We conducted 32 in-depth interviews with 33 individuals. Most interviews were conducted on an individual basis; however, two interviews were conducted with 2 participants from the same organisation. One participant was interviewed twice. Study participants were community organisers from civil society organisations, education providers from learning centres and schools, policymakers from government and international organisations, and academic researchers with professional expertise in the education of refugee, stateless, and migrant populations in Malaysia. We also interviewed adult refugees who had experience navigating the mostly informal education system in Malaysia as children. Our participants were able to share specific expertise on (1) stateless and undocumented children applicable to entire Malaysia, (2) refugees and asylum-seekers in Peninsular Malaysia, and (3) the migrant, stateless and undocumented communities in Sabah. Sample characteristics are shown in Table 1. Due to public health measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, most interviews (28 of 33) were conducted remotely using an online platform (Microsoft Teams), while 5 interviews were conducted in-person in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Most interviews were conducted PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 3 / 26