‘Being stateless makes things challenging for us here. My children feel Australian – yet we are often reminded they are not. For example, our eldest child Iman started kindergarten this year. It was so difficult to enrol him – they asked about his passport, his visa, his status. I felt so embarrassed having to explain he has no passport – no identity. No certainty of his future. Having citizenship will make it easier for him – for all of our kids.’ Nur, stateless Rohingya mother of fourli Australia’s Legal Framework for Nationality and Statelessness The Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) (Citizenship Act) provides the legal framework for nationality in Australia. Section 21(8) of the Citizenship Act provides that a person born in Australia who is not (nor has ever been) a citizen or national of a foreign country, and is not entitled to acquire citizenship or nationality of another state, is eligible for Australian citizenship.lii How Many Stateless People Are There in Australia? There are many stateless persons in Australia, however reliable and exact figures are unknown due to a ‘lack of coordinated or consistent approach’ to recording such persons.liii The most recent UNHCR Global Trends Report identified 8,073 stateless persons in Australia in 2023 but noted that given Australia lacked a process for identifying stateless persons (i.e. a ‘statelessness determination procedure’ discussed above and below), this figure does not capture all stateless persons in Australia and cannot be considered a true estimate of statelessness in Australia.liv The true number of stateless persons in Australia is likely to be considerably higher.lv 31