CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “To be without documents and a nationality is as if you never existed in this world.” – Isa, a stateless person from Former Yugoslavia and currently living in Serbia1 The world today is divided into (nation-)states, making belonging to – and being able to enter, reside in, and leave – a state important. To prove and legally qualify the bond between a person and a state, the legal concept of nationality, legal rules on acquiring and losing nationality, and the passport were introduced.2 Nationality has become an instrument for states to build nations, and to exercise power and control over their citizens, and also (by default) over non-citizens and questions of migration. Nationality, in this regard, could be a compelling reward for loyalty to the state. Nationality or citizenship is also a way for citizens to be part of society and co-decide on matters that concern them – in democratic states at least. At the same time, some people have been excluded from nationality, left out, or forgotten by this system. They remain disenfranchised, without any nationality, stateless. Statelessness is a fascinating legal anomaly. It is an entirely manmade problem, which is created by the law. Statelessness is, however, not only a legal problem. It is also a human (rights) problem.3 As the above quote from a stateless person illustrates, to be stateless means having no nationality whatsoever and often possessing no documents to prove your identity. It can make a person feel as if he or she is invisible. Statelessness can indeed have grave consequences for the person involved, including problems with accessing some of the most basic human rights. Many stateless people are unable to access health care and education, to get married, to find work, to travel or to vote, or experience difficulties in this regard. This makes it very hard for most stateless people to fully participate in society. This human (rights) problem should be enough to compel states to acknowledge that statelessness is an issue that deserves their attention, but a state perspective on the matter also brings up other considerations. Large numbers of stateless people can be 1 2 3 European Network on Statelessness (ENS), ‘Still Stateless, Still Suffering. Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons’ (ENS 2014) <www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/fi les/ENS_ Still_Stateless_Still_Suffering_online%20version_2.pdf> accessed 22 August 2021. Cf John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport. Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society, Cambridge University Press 2000). Carol A Batchelor, ‘Statelessness and the Problem of Resolving Nationality Status’ (1998) 10 International Journal of Refugee Law 156, 159. Intersentia 3