Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa by the government to manipulate the country’s demographics”.92 Closely related to demographic issues are certain economic considerations underlying the choices states make with regard to the conditions for acquisition and loss of nationality. Again, the GCC sub-region is relatively unique here as most countries can be classified as “rentier states”, deriving the vast majority of their national income from the revenue produced from natural resources, most significantly oil. Thus, in countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and UAE, it pays to be a national, because of the share in this natural wealth that is distributed among the body of citizens – as opposed to the more familiar state model in which citizens share the burden of taxation. In these countries then, nationality is a highly prized and protected domain, with stringent conditions that must be met to qualify and benefit from its privileges. Where statelessness exists, side by side with the wealth of a rentier states’ citizenry, such as in the case of the Kuwaiti Bidoon, the contrast is all the more stark for this economic discrepancy 92 - UNHCR, The situation of stateless persons in the Middle East and North Africa, October 2010; citing International Crisis Group, Bahrain’s Sectarian Challenge, Middle East Report No. 40, 6 May 2005; Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2009 – Bahrain, 16 July 2009; US State Department, 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Bahrain, 25 February 2009; G. Parolin, Citizenship in the Arab World. Kin, Religion and Nation-State, IMISCOE Research, Amsterdam University Press, 2009. 74