Better Must Come participate, and are in some respect alienated from the political process. Finally, rurally located interviewees constitute the majority (8/14) of those who report no improvement in access. 5 Belonging Belonging is difficult to define and difficult to appraise. As previously noted, this study is placed within the context of the UNHCR’s global #IBELONG Campaign to end statelessness by 2024. For this reason, the term belonging used in this paper is in direct reference to the #IBELONG Campaign, though this does not bring us any closer to what belonging actually means. To further complicate matters, nowhere does the UNHCR define this term, though it does provide an explanation of what belonging is not: Across the world today more than ten million people are told they don’t belong ANYWHERE. They are called ‘stateless’. They are denied a nationality. And with it, they are denied their basic rights. Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care, or legal employment. It can mean a life without the ability to move freely, without prospects, or hope. 122 In view of the above, and for the purposes of this paper, belonging is to be understood as having a nationality that entitles one to basic rights such as, but not limited to, the right to education, the right to medical care, the right to work, freedom of movement and to a life where one is ultimately free to pursue their hopes and dreams. The challenge of trying to qualify and quantify belonging owes to its intangible nature. Belonging is not static, nor is it a good to be kept. Rather, it is reified only through the words and actions of one’s peers, friends, and loved ones, and by the degree to which one finds oneself reflected in the prevailing dominant culture. Though this explanation is not beyond the realm of comprehension, it does not easily provide for the undertaking of annual United Nations Human Belonging Index whereupon social scientists can measure how belonging has waxed and waned throughout the years. However, this does not mean that it is beyond the scope of enquiry, for not only is belonging an essential component of human social life, it implicitly shapes the historical experience of groups that have at one time not belonged, such as the Up-Country Tamils of Sri Lanka. Though it is difficult to capture the extent to which persons and populations feel as though they belong, because people simply perceive themselves to either belong or not belong to a given group or society, an appraisal of belonging can nonetheless be pursued. In an effort to determine the extent of belonging among this population, questionnaire survey respondents and interviewees were asked: whether the acquisition of Sri Lankan citizenship, and by extension formal recognition as people of Sri Lanka, was of benefit in toto; whether they perceived themselves to be the equals of the majority population; and what the foremost challenge confronting this community was. Given that ‘the main reason people are stateless is because of discrimination’, 123 equality, meaning equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities was chosen to gauge whether people felt as though they now belonged. Still, questionnaire survey respondents and 122 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, ‘IBELONG — Join the Campaign to End Statelessness’ (Website) <http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/>. 123 ibid. 25