2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) how to prevent modern slavery in the future. 2 Effective measurement of modern slavery is the cornerstone of evidence-based policy making in our field and can have a similarly powerful impact on statelessness research. This symposium on the challenges, solutions and best practices of measurement in modern slavery — and how it can inform statelessness research — is a critical opportunity to ensure that all stakeholders feel empowered to interpret and use our collective findings. II STATELESSNESS IN THE AMERICAS AND THE RISK OF EXPLOITATION AND MODERN SLAVERY Statelessness increases risk of modern slavery and presents an opportunity for a shared research agenda, particularly in the Americas. Despite increased media coverage of modern slavery throughout the region, statelessness might not be the first issue that we consider when we think of the Americas. 3 However, over the past six years, the vulnerabilities to statelessness resulting from the Venezuelan crisis and the citizenship stripping of Dominicans of Haitian descent have propelled the Americas into prominent focus in statelessness discussions. 4 Importantly, the Americas remains a region with strong domestic legislative precedent for citizenship provisions and, therefore, a potential opportunity for meaningful action to address statelessness and its inherent risk of exploitation. 5 Multiple components of the GSI Global Vulnerability Model correspond to the risks that stateless persons face in the Americas and around the world, including adverse effects from governance issues, lack of basic needs, inequality, membership in disenfranchised groups and effects of conflict, including risk of internal displacement. 6 Challenges in measuring statelessness powerfully overlap with challenges in measuring modern slavery as an important focal point for research and motivating political action in both fields. In particular, risk of exploitation and modern slavery among stateless populations warrants further consideration. These intersecting research interests can be pursued in the Americas region through the following opportunities for a joint research agenda on statelessness and modern slavery. A De Jure Statelessness of Dominicans of Haitian-Descent and Risk of Exploitation and Modern Slavery De jure stateless persons, those who are unable to invoke the protection of any state, are the most commonly understood form of statelessness under the United 2 3 4 5 6 Global Slavery Index (Report, Walk Free Foundation 2018) <globalslaveryindex.org> (‘GSI’). Laura Van Waas, Amal de Chickera and Zahra Albarazi, ‘The World’s Stateless: A New Report on Why Size Does and Does Not Matter’, European Network on Statelessness (Blog Post, 15 December 2014) <https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/world%E2%80%99s-statelessnew-report-why-size-does-and-doesn%E2%80%99t-matter>. The World’s Stateless: Deprivation of Nationality (Report, Instute on Statelessness and Inclusion March 2020) 65–68 (‘The World’s Stateless’) <https://www.institutesi.org/resources/worlds-stateless-2020>. ibid 55. Minderoo Foundation, ‘2018 Methodology: Vulnerability’, Global Slavery Index (Web Page, 2018) <https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/methodology/vulnerability/>; GSI (n 2). 142