AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 6 No 2, MAY-AUG 2020 for example, children born out of wedlock to South African mothers who are unmarried. iv) By naturalization or upon application (discretionary) – after a long-term legal residence, children with refugee status can apply for citizenship, based on the Refugee Act. Sec. 4(3) of the RSA Citizenship Act (RSA, 1995), which allows a child born in South Africa to parents with no citizenship or permanent status to apply for South African citizenship when they turn 18, but only if their birth was registered. Children can apply for naturalization after permanent residency. IMPLICATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION According to Edwards and Mika (2017: 695), “the profession of social work has a mandate to serve vulnerable populations, effect positive social change, and strive for justice on a local, national and global level.” It is within this area that social work and statelessness intersect. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ social work intervention guide for individual stateless children (and their families), although similarities may exist in cases. However, “effective interventions to reduce children’s risks of becoming stateless, must take into account the social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts involved in transnational migration” (Ball et al., 2014: 2). An understanding of these contexts can provide greater insights into factors influencing statelessness. Children in South Africa can get nationality only under the conditions set out in the various pieces of legislation. In addition, they must also be able to demonstrate their entitlement (Van Waas, 2007: 447). Documentary evidence showing birthplace or parentage is required for birth registration in South Africa. Other forms of evidence such as DNA and hospital records can be used in place of the birth certificate, but these can be problematic, expensive or impossible to get and government officials can always challenge them and their process of acquisition. In certain instances, stateless, stateless-migrant and migrant children are looked at through the ‘human security’ lens and not the human/child rights lens. Thus, “social workers need to be informed of the discourses that shape the issue in policy and practice” (Edwards and Mika, 2017: 696). This calls for social workers to reframe the language of human rights so that stateless people, including children, can join this debate with policymakers and implementers and can be heard (Ife, 2008). This social work voice is needed during policy development, as social workers bear witness to the stateless child in the oppressive system. The actualization of human rights for migrant stateless children must be at the core of policy development. The practice knowledge shared by social workers can subsequently be translated into effective policy, and the separation between micro and macro work is lessened (Cox and Pawar, 2013; Perdue et al., 2012; Warria and Chikadzi, 2018). According to Ball et al. (2014), parents’ own life trajectories can influence birth registration as they relate to child birth circumstances. These trajectories include, the child being born in or out of marriage, the child’s father being the mother’s partner, 16