Introduction 11 I explore how archetypal notions of ‘the state’ and ‘the stateless person’ have been constructed within global governance agendas and international discourses relating to citizenship and statelessness. I consider statelessness as a discursive concept, exploring how and to what affect ‘the stateless person’ has been construed as ‘invisible’ to the state and to international bureaucracies. Drawing on both statelessness scholarship and analysis of key UN texts and campaign material, the chapter explores how archetypal notions of state bureaucracies as neutral or benign, rather than imbued with exclusionary state power, have shaped targets, action plans, and policy approaches. Issues of state crime are largely ignored. This chapter provides context within which to frame Rohingya narratives relating to statelessness and genocide. Chapter 4 focuses on the history of ID schemes in the Rakhine region, which today falls within the territorial borders of Myanmar. It looks at the period from the British colonial period, up to Burma’s independence. It considers the role of colonial categorisation, registration, and ID schemes in consolidating colonial power. It considers how racial and class hierarchies were established and reified, as well as the role of IDs and registration in extracting labour and quelling dissent. It also focuses on the significance of the documenting of ‘foreigners’ in Myanmar’s struggle for independence. It also shows how citizenship and immigration frameworks evolved as Burma gained independence. Chapter 4 provides background as to how authoritarian regimes utilise ID schemes as a form of ‘social engineering’ (Scott 1998:194). It also provides context to the later chapters which explore how identities and social relations were reorganised under the militarised state. Chapter 5 considers the citizenship framework and ID scheme that was in place in the early decades of independence, noting how the state ‘strategically embraced’ minority populations including Rohingya as part of peace pacts (Cowley and Zarni 2017:1). It explores how Rohingya citizenship was experienced and enacted, and considers the meanings attributed by participants to ID cards from this period. It considers how Rohingya in refugee settings collect and collate IDs and registration documents from this era as artefacts that evidence their bonds with the central state, and as evidence of the process of citizenship stripping and state crime that were to follow under the military state. Chapters 6 and 7 explore genocide and identity destruction in Rohingya ID narratives. Drawing on scholarship relating to genocide as a sociological process and social practice, the chapters focus on the role of Myanmar’s ID schemes within the different stages or phases of genocide. Both chapters relate to the period of time from the late 1970s when systematic attempts were made to symbolically and physically destroy Rohingya as a group belonging to Myanmar, up until the genocidal violence of 2016–7. The chapters also explore how Rohingya participants envisaged citizenship as a key element of future safe returns and repatriations from the refugee camps in Bangladesh to their homes in Rakhine. Chapter 6, ‘Genocide and Identity Destruction in Rohingya ID Narratives,’ explores ID schemes within genocide scholarship,