Leaving No One Behind: Statelessness and the Sustainable Development Goals The biggest problem is the poverty caused by my statelessness. A stateless person cannot own property. I feel belittled and disgraced by the situation that I am in. (Shaame Hamisi, 55, Pemba community, Kenya).34 I can’t find a better job because I know they will ask for ID documents so they can employ me … They asked for many documents from my parents [to register my birth] and even a DNA analysis, which we could not afford. (Stateless Romani in North Macedonia).35 I really want to get the nationality so that I won’t be deceived to work again like when I worked in Chiang Mai at the age of 16, the employer cheated on me. He didn’t pay me a wage for one year. And I wasn’t able to go back home because I had no money. (30 year old stateless woman in Northern Thailand).36 My husband was lucky to have been allocated a stall to sell his handicrafts at one of the big hotels on the coast, but he was later evicted for not having proof of any nationality. I tried to register the stall in my name but they told me that I couldn’t because I was a woman. (Kenyan woman married to a member of the Makonde minority).37 Even in contexts where there is a population of stateless persons who are recognized legal residents of the country and enjoy very similar rights to citizens (except for the right to vote), economic disparities may continue. For example, an OECD report found that among Russian speakers who make up the majority of "Latvian non-citizens", non-citizen workers earned 10 per cent less than Latvian citizens in similar circumstances, while the gap was 7.4. per cent for members of national minority groups with citizenship.38 One of the principal ways in which statelessness creates poverty is by constraining freedom of movement. Those who do not hold the correct identity documents may be restricted to small geographical areas, because travel even within the country of lifelong residence is not possible – because of roadblocks and other identity document checks – without proof of regular legal status in the country. They are unable to seek work and better opportunities even within the informal sector, or are required to pay bribes to security officers when stopped and found not to hold the right documentation, or to be released from detention.39 34. UNHCR, “This is our home”, 3. 35. European Network on Statelessness, European Roma Rights Centre and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Roma belong”, 44. 36. Conny Rijken et al., “The nexus between statelessness and human trafficking in Thailand” (Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, 2015), 17, https:// files.institutesi.org/Stateless-Trafficking_Thailand.pdf. 37. UNHCR and Kenya Human Rights Commission: “Kenya dialogue on gender equality, nationality and statelessness”, March 2015 www.refworld.org/ docid/54f838564.html. 38. “OECD reviews of labour market and social policies: Latvia” (OECD, 2016), 29 https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-reviews-of-labour-marketand-social-policies-latvia-2016_9789264250505-en.html. 39. David Weissbrodt and Clay Collins, “The human rights of stateless persons”, Human Rights Quarterly 26, No. 1 (2006): 245–76. 24