Papers, cards, and perilous encounters with the state 31 Retelling narratives as politically engaged research In this research, I did not seek to disengage myself from the political, moral, and ideological issues that motivate it in a quest for ‘objectivity.’ As such, I took a position similar to that of an action-orientated researcher (Reason and Bradbury 2008:163). I consider myself an active participant in trying to ensure that Rohingya voices are put to the forefront and pushing for greater public spaces for Rohingya activists to be heard on this issue. State crime research is also engaged scholarship (Grewcock 2012). In promoting Rohingya activism, I am not engaging in trying to shift scholarship or indeed international policy to reflect my own informed views but rather to amplify the views of participants through various methods. Such amplification involved assisting participants and key informers with editing journalistic articles for international publication, editing statements by Rohingya organisations, editing speeches for public forums, drafting chapters of Rohingya organisations books based on focus groups with them, and assisting with fundraising and support of genocide memorial efforts. Through playing an active part in these processes, I learnt about the ways in which Rohingya sought to influence public discourses through their activism. I also retold individual narratives from the research in events and conferences involving policymakers, UN officials, and government officials, which aimed to influence international policy relating to Rohingya (in addition and separate from conferences and workshops for developing my research).8 Rewriting, recontextualising and retelling stories to different audiences whilst maintaining the integrity of the original narratives, is a key aspect of narrative research (Czarniawska 2010:65). It has been possible through these avenues to gage the response to Rohingya narratives that counteract dominant understandings and to use my research in what I consider to be an ethical and publicly engaged way. I also published narrative-centred blogs and articles based on issues that participants have requested are put in the public domain where they feel the issues are being sidelined or silenced, including the role of international organisations in rolling out ID card schemes for refugees and returnees.9 The process of ethically conscious and politically engaged research does not come to a neat conclusion at the end of research project. Rather, the relationships and dynamics formed between participants and communities continue to develop and shift. Likewise, the meaning of identity documents, both old and new, in people’s lives is in a constant state of flux. The chapters that follow attempt to represent those dynamics projected both into the past and into the future during the limited time period between 2017 and 2019. Chapters 4 to 8 analyse various aspects of the ID narratives in different historical and socio-political contexts. First, however, Chapter 3 provides an important backdrop by exploring the developing international discourses on statelessness.