Theoretical error, real-world problems 27 Noncitizens bear the burden of inadequate theory [29-year-­old­ Esrafil]­ had­ no­ money­ and­ no­ home­ because­ his­ asylum­ application had been refused and his support cut off. He was ill and could not­find­a­doctor­who­would­treat­him.­Although­terrified­of­return­to­Iran­ and­convinced­he­had­not­had­a­fair­hearing,­he­could­not­find­a­lawyer­to­ take­on­his­case.­He­set­fire­to­himself­in­the­office,­and­died­six­days­later­ in hospital. (Refugee Action UK 20063) From­ the­ details­ given­ above,­ it­ seems­ that­ Esrafil­ did­ not­ principally­ die­ of­ poverty and ill-health. And he did not die in a country that lacked the resources to help him to live. Though ostensibly built upon liberal democratic norms, the UK (the country where this took place) did not acknowledge his presence within them. He died because of a failure to recognise his living and human existence within moral and legal frameworks, and his relationship with the State on whose territory­he­stood.­The­relationship­Esrafil­had­with­the­UK,­where­he­died,­was­ represented only as a non-relationship. He was unwanted and so unacknow ledged. According to the State’s policy framework, he should not have been there. But he was. That is the burden that noncitizens bear – at its most extreme, they must live in a system that only acknowledges them when it wants to. And when it doesn’t want to, they are destined not to exist. ­ Not­all­those­relating­as­noncitizens­suffer­as­Esrafil­did.­Many­live­well,­and­ rarely­encounter­their­noncitizenship­to­this­extent.­Many­are­able­to­use­citizen ships or quasi-citizenships to overcome the most extreme noncitizen depriva tions. A university lecturer from the UK, for example, may well live in the US, so long as the university continues to renew its contract with her/im and the State continues to let that count as reason enough for her/im to remain. S/he lives as a noncitizen in the US insofar as her/is right to remain is contingent and her/is quasi-citizenship is easily undone, giving rise to precarity. Once the university ceases to employ her/im, the State most likely ceases to recognise its relationship. Noncitizens generally lack access to rights except through citizenship proxies. When noncitizenship is left unacknowledged it is possible for a person’s living human existence to be denied by a State, even when s/he is physically present on its territory. On some occasions, this non-recognition might be considered worse than death. The truth of this was tragically demonstrated in the example above which speaks of the death, in 2006, of an Iranian young man who set himself on fire­in­order­to­be­seen. Noncitizens bear the burdens of their own non-recognition in four main ways.4 First, the noncitizen burdens are felt upon the territory of a State – as in the­case­of­Esrafil.­For­him,­pervasive­citizenism­(the­assumption­that­citizenship­ 3 Refugee Action (2006) The Destitution Trap, Refugee Action, London p. 10. 4 This is developed in detail in Chapter 8.