‘I Must Be from Somewhere. I’m Not from the Moon’ Our use of the concept of ‘standpoint(s)’ is inspired by feminist scholarship in the various negotiations of the relationship between knowledge and power. Feminist standpoint epistemology is based on the idea that the socio-political positions of women (or other marginalised groups) make them better knowers of their conditions and struggles and this epistemic power should be acknowledged vis-a-vis dominant narratives produced about them. 27 Our work builds on this position in the case of stateless refugees by considering their situated experiences as a site of knowledge on refugee and stateless labels. Although we base our understanding on individual standpoints, the rationale of this work derives from collective standpoints that give deeper meanings to the socio-political struggles of statelessness and refugeeness. As Donna Haraway has rightly asserted, ‘[s]ituated knowledges are about communities, not about isolated individuals’. 28 Thus, the analytical lens offered through standpoint theory engages the perspectives of stateless refugees as an act of collective epistemic agency and empowerment visa-vis knowledge about statelessness and refugees common to the socio-political discourse of these labels. 29 Due to Palestinians being the largest and most well-known stateless population, it is not surprising that they have been the focus of much of the previous research on the stateless label in the European context. For example, Elena FiddianQasmiyeh discussed how Palestinians experienced, negotiated and contested being labelled as stateless by several bureaucratic systems in Europe. 30 The research highlighted the value of recognising the dangers of, and stripping away, the concept of statelessness as a form of vulnerability. By doing so, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh examined the: perceptions of statelessness as a marker of rightlessness, home(land)lessness and voicelessness which is simultaneously embraced and yet resisted as an ambiguous label, status, and condition imposed upon them through a range of political and bureaucratic processes. 31 Nell Gabiam, when looking at Palestinians in France, questioned the assumption of UNHCR’s discourse on statelessness by privileging the informants’ understanding of what it meant to be stateless. 32 In deconstructing the imposed stateless label, as well as academic and policy makers understanding of statelessness, Gabiam noted that: [w]hile being a member of a stateless people is a cause of statelessness at the individual level, this does not mean, in practice, that a person who is a member of a stateless people is necessarily stateless in the legal sense: that he or she is not recognized as a national of any state. 33 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 See generally Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (2nd ed, Routledge 1999); Sandra Harding, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies (Routledge 2003). Donna Haraway, ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective’ (1988) 14(3) Feminist Studies 575, 590. Haqqi Bahram, ‘Towards a Stateless Standpoint Epistemology’ (2021) 3(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review 113, 116. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (n 7). ibid 307. Nell Gabiam, ‘Citizenship and Development: Palestinians in France and the Multiple Meanings of Statelessness’ (2015) 50(4) Studies in Comparative International Development 479. ibid 481. 335