60 Introducing ‘unwanted’ noncitizens in new ways. It activates new forms of noncitizenship in individuals who would otherwise not be excluded in this way. The vulnerabilities associated with noncitizenship also change the meaning of citizenship at a more fundamental level. If formal citizenship or quasi-citizenship is needed for recognition or protection, then all must pursue citizenship of some kind for satisfaction of basic needs. If it is seen in this way, then citizenship cannot be seen as a consensual relationship, or even hypothetically consensual. If citizenship is needed for access to basic human needs, it is hard to imagine many people withholding their consent from it (though, as we will see in Chapter 6, some try to do so). As a result, it becomes distasteful to speak in even quasicontractarian terms. The non-recognition of ‘unwanted’ noncitizens, then, also constrains the meanings of citizenship on several levels. When the relationships of ‘unwanted’ noncitizens with the States where they live is denied, such individuals suffer from an artificial constriction of capability that is often rendered invisible, or even conceptually non-existent. As has been shown in this chapter, irregular immigrants and stateless persons may be healthy, strong, highly qualified. Yet they can be artificially impaired in their capabilities by the institutional situation in which they find themselves. In this way, individuals may also be forced to be in opposition to the States where they live in order to perform unavoidable activities. Both irregular immigrants and stateless persons are explicitly rejected by the States where they live. Both are often impeded in travelling regularly and both are often subject to significant vulnerability and substantial privations. They are also both at risk of being subject to a vicious cycle of dehumanisation.

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