The Kuwaiti population includes around 100,000 stateless people known as biduns — long-term residents denied nationality since 1986. Despite deep cultural and geographic ties to Kuwait, they are treated as illegal residents, lacking access to employment, education, healthcare, and official documentation. Restrictions began easing only after the first bidun protest in 2011. Claire Beaugrand highlights that the biduns’ situation is not an anomaly but central to understanding Gulf state formation, illustrating how identity, citizenship, and the boundaries of nationality are defined and enforced within the region.