‘To be stateless means to have no country. This is very hard – and I feel deeply sad about it. I know people who aren’t allowed to study or work because they are stateless – I worry about this for my daughter.’ Aisha, stateless Rohingya woman of one1 Introduction To be stateless means you have no nationality or citizenship; legally speaking, you belong to no country in the world. This is significant, particularly for children, as without citizenship stateless children face hurdles in accessing many of the basic rights and entitlements most of us take for granted: access to education, healthcare; essentially all the critical components that provide for a child to live and grow in a secure environment. Many stateless children lack the ability to enjoy a normal Australian childhood, despite being born on Australian soil. 8