356 GEORGETOWN IMMIGRATION LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 29:351 refugees with a protocol for stateless persons.11 In so doing, the U.N. recognized the interconnectedness of these two vulnerable populations, citing two main causes of statelessness: (1) flight from racial, religious, or political persecution, and (2) mass emigration caused by changes in a country’s political or social system.12 Despite the interconnectedness of the stateless and refugee experiences, the Conference of Plenipotentiaries ultimately drafted two separate, though very similar conventions: the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) and the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons (Statelessness Convention).13 These conventions set forth legal regimes that were intended primarily to facilitate the settlement of refugees and stateless persons who had no country to which they could reasonably return after WWII. The Refugee Convention provided a framework for the resettlement of persons with a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of nationality or former habitual residence, where that persecution would be on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.14 The Statelessness Convention provided analogous protection to persons not considered nationals under the operation of law of any country.15 For those who meet the 1954 Convention definition of statelessness, the Convention provides four bundles of guarantees: (i) juridical status, including personal status, property rights, right of association, and access to courts; (ii) gainful employment, including wage-earning employment, selfemployment, and access to the “liberal professions”; (iii) welfare, including rationing, housing, public education, public relief, labor legislation, and social security; and (iv) administrative measures, including administrative assistance, freedom of movement, identity papers, travel documents, fiscal changes, transfer of assets, expulsion, and naturalization.16 These guarantees track those provided by the Refugee Convention, evidencing the goal of providing seamless protection to stateless persons and refugees.17 11. Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Problems, Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons—Memorandum by the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. E/AC.32/2 (Jan. 3, 1950). 12. E.S.C. Res. 1949/248 (IX) B, U.N. Doc. A/RES/972 (IV) (Aug. 8, 1949) at 131, 141-42. 13. U.N. Ad Hoc Committee on Refugees and Stateless Persons, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Statelessness and Related Persons, U.N. Doc. E/1618; E/AC.35/5 (Feb. 17 1950), available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/40aa15374.html; UNHCR, UNHCR HANDBOOK ON THE DETERMINATION OF STATELESSNESS (2010). 14. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees art. 1.A, July 28, 1951, available at http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html [hereinafter Refugee Convention]. 15. Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons art. 1.1, Sept. 28, 1954, 360 U.N.T.S. 117, available at http://www.unhcr.org/3bbb25729.html [hereinafter Statelessness Convention]. 16. See id. at art. 12-32; UNHCR, HANDBOOK ON PROTECTION OF STATELESS PERSONS ¶ 129 (2014) [hereinafter Statelessness Handbook]. Notably, the Statelessness Convention does not contain any protection against refoulement or penalties for illegal entry, and it provides lower standards of treatment with respect to employment and freedom of association than the Refugee Convention. Id. at ¶ 127. 17. Carol A. Batchelor, Statelessness and the Problem of Resolving Nationality Status, 10 INT’L J. REFUGEE L. 172 (1998). Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2796321