the operation of its law. To be stateless is to be without nationality or citizenship.”25 Furthermore, IRCC has included a definition of de jure and de facto stateless persons: Stateless persons include the de jure stateless and the de facto stateless. De jure statelessness refers to a person who is not considered a national by any state under the operation of its law. That is, no state recognizes the person as its own national. De facto statelessness refers to a person with an ineffective nationality or who cannot establish their nationality. In such cases, a person still holds a nationality, but they do not receive any of the benefits generally associated with nationality.26 Section 5(5) of the Citizenship Act creates an additional safeguard against statelessness for the children of Canadian citizens born abroad. This section of the Act makes it mandatory for the Minister to grant citizenship upon application to a child born abroad to a Canadian parent who was themselves born abroad, subject to a number of conditions (discussed further below in the section on “second generation born abroad”). 2. Profiles of Stateless Persons in Canada Stateless persons27 in Canada are made up of a complex and diverse group of people including Indigenous persons, asylum-seekers, permanent and temporary residents, people without any immigration status and second-generation children born abroad. These people may reside in Canada on valid visas or whilst an investigation into their citizenship and/or immigration claims is conducted, they may be detained temporarily while awaiting either resolution of their immigration issues or removal, or, they may be detained indefinitely whilst authorities deliberate on courses of action while trying to effect removal orders. In the 2016 Census, the Canadian government reported that there were 3,790 stateless persons28 in Canada: 3,400 are considered as permanent residents and 390 non-permanent residents.29 This figure should be used cautiously because, firstly, it is self-reported which renders it subject to human error, and secondly, this figure is based on household data (rather than individual data) which excludes, for example, visiting stateless persons, or those residing in shelters, detention centres30 and hotels. Further, recent statistics show that there are only a few stateless persons who entered Canada as permanent residents and who were granted different permits between 2017 and 2018.31 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 A “stateless person” is a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law, Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. 28 Statistics Canada defines statelessness as a person who does not have citizenship. See: Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016: Citizenship. (18 September 2017). 29 The census did not capture the various possible statuses or absences of status of this group. 30 For example, between 2012 and September, 2017, there were 145 stateless persons in detention. 31 1831 stateless persons were admitted as permanent residents between 2017 and 2018. There were also 1514 stateless permits provided with work, study and temporary resident permits. 5