Using Oral History Methods to Document 79 opinions on public issues affecting them, respondents also drew upon images of Canada as a proverbial land of liberty, egalitarianism, and multicultural rights. They saw citizenship not as a tool to exclude and stratify, but as a mutually obligatory relationship between individual and the state. This being said, more complicated dynamics underlay the apparent success stories of stateless Chinese-Bruneians finding new homes in Canada. I must point out the disjuncture that sometimes became apparent between these romanticized perceptions and the less than rosy realities of their integration experiences. This was most noticeable in respondents’ accounts of trying to enter or move up in the Canadian labour market. While approximately one third of respondents managed to obtain white-collar careers and resided in middle-class neighbourhoods in Vancouver, others became stuck in lowpaid jobs traditionally held by immigrants and ethnic minorities, such as those in hospital cafeterias, hotels, and car-washes. Barriers such as the nonrecognition of foreign credentials, th e lack of financial resources to upgrade their skills, the privileging of ‘Canadian work experience’, and possible stereotypical assumptions held by employers about hiring immigrants in blue-collar positions, posed significant challenges to respondents adjusting to their new lives. Despite these gaps between discourse and reality, respondents did not dwell upon these hardships. That they opted instead to highlight the more positive symbolic benefits of being part of the Canadian national community points to the power of institutionalized discourses over the way people make sense of their own circumstances. 5 Conclusion This study marks the first attempt to critically analyze the subjective experiences of stateless Chinese-Bruneians and their attitudes towards citizenship. In addition to describing the oft-neglected human aspects of being denied the right to a nationality, findings from this project also contribute to our understanding of the interplay between citizenship policies and the ways in which individuals relate to the state.7 These oral histories of stateless ChineseBruneian immigrants in Vancouver shed light upon how formal laws and discourses surrounding what it means to be a citizen influence how individuals understand their own roles as civic beings, and how they fit themselves into their national communities. In contributing to the relatively nascent but growing body of literature on statelessness, I argue that more attention needs 7 Bloemraad, 2006 (n 4). tilburg law review 19 (2014) 74-80