“[The idea of belonging, the idea of a home] … it’s as important as those rights [health care], to feel that you’re normal, you’re like all people, you can have a citizenship, you can have your rights now and you can say that you belong to here now. No one can just come and kick you out whenever they want. [Because] after I was kicked out from Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, I feel like … I am not safe.” [Farah] 2.2.2 Stateless Asylum-Seekers Asylum-seekers are individuals from another country who have made an asylum application and are awaiting a decision.43 Once the individual is deemed to be eligible to make a claim, their application is submitted to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), an independent administrative tribunal that makes refugee and immigration decisions, for a hearing. While they await their hearing, asylum-seekers may have access to social assistance, education, health services, emergency housing, and legal aid.44 In most cases, asylum-seekers are eligible to apply for a work permit, after they have undergone a medical examination. It is possible for them to apply for student authorization to attend post-secondary school while awaiting a decision, and children are automatically eligible to attend school. Asylum-seekers are not eligible for federal settlement services until their asylum claim has resulted in a positive decision. Those who abandon or withdraw their claims, or who are found to be ineligible to make a claim, do not have access to health care. Those whose application has been rejected may still be eligible for social assistance, depending on the province in which their claim was made. In view of a lack of statelessness determination process in Canada, many stateless persons attempt to resolve their status by making a refugee claim in Canada. They must show a fear of persecution in their country of former habitual residence. While they await their decision, stateless asylum-seekers have access to the same rights as well as provincial and federal services as all asylum-seekers. In 2017, 31,547 individuals submitted an asylum claim, with 292 of them being stateless persons. 2.3 Non-Status Stateless Persons There are also stateless individuals in Canada without any immigration status. This group comprises individuals whose applications for status are being processed, those whose applications for status have been rejected and they have not yet, or are unable to, file an application or appeal, and those who have not applied for status and who reside in Canada in limbo. 43 http://www.unhcr.org/asylum-seekers.html. 44 See footnote 33. 10