176 3 McGee Qualitative Evaluation - Benefits & Identity From a qualitative perspective, the impacts of naturalization upon the enjoyment of ‘the practical benefits of citizenship’ will be examined in the following section.19 The fact that 94 percent reportedly applied to take citizenship shows that it is considered as an attractive and/or beneficial prospect for most ajnabi Kurds. Indeed, in interviews it was often mentioned that people were prepared to pay large bribes in order to secure or expedite their and their family’s naturalization. I.D. cards for naturalised Kurds appear, and function, like those of all other citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic. Though not always easy and sometimes requiring bribes, interviewees reported being able to register property in their names. A case that demonstrates the radically new opportunities for some involves an individual being able to regularise a job that he had been doing illegally for almost four years.20 Critically given the conflict situation, citizenship has provided its beneficiaries greater security to move freely around the streets without the same level of risk of imprisonment/victimization if stopped by police without valid papers.21 However, respondents also reported that in many ways acquisition of citizenship does not end the suffering they have experienced for decades. ‘For the young,’ says one interviewee, ‘maybe they can seize the new opportunities, yet for those of us who are older, we have internalised the position of inferiority.’22 In addition to this, many of the theoretically newly acquired rights remain limited or untestable due to the disruption of normalcy by Syria’s present conflict situation. Public institutions are no longer operating ordinarily, but in many 19 20 21 22 Brad Blitz and Maureen Lynch, ‘Statelessness: The Global Problem, Relevant Literature and Research Rationale’ in Brad Blizt and Maureen Lynch (eds), Statelessness and the Benefits of Citizenship: A Comparative Study (Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, International Observatory on Statelessness, 2009) 4–17. Newly naturalized citizens are not entitled to all the employment benefits of other nationals since some public sector jobs require one to have been a citizen for 5 years. In interviews, stateless Kurds often reported having problems with the police in Syria or neighbouring countries, where checkpoints and police raids can be part of the daily reality. Anne Dekkar records the following example: ‘I am maktoum. This means my life is worth nothing. If the police sees us talking I will have a big problem. But what can they do? What can they take from me? I have nothing, I am a maktoum. My life can’t get worse.”’ ‘Consequences of statelessness: Ajanib and Maktoum in Syria’ (MA thesis, Amsterdam Free University 2011) 56. Names of all respondents except public figures have been concealed in order to protect their anonymity. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 171-181