40 Theoretical error, real-world problems Noncitizenism draws attention to the substantial obligation-generating relation ship between noncitizens and States, showing that noncitizen rights are not purely humanitarian­in­nature,­and­are­not­supererogatory,­but­are­part­of­a­just­institutional­ arrangement. When persons have to prove either citizenship or some quasicitizenship in order to make claims against a State, this means that anyone unable to do so will be seen as (hyphenated) non-citizens, assumed to have no recognised rela tionship with, or claim upon, the State concerned. The recognition of (unhyphenated) noncitizenship is, then, both theoretically appropriate and in fact urgent. There is also a readiness for change amongst some international policy actors. There has been a growing and developing constellation of entities and processes directed at securing the­rights­of­various­groups­of­noncitizens,­whether­through­the­Millennium­Devel opment­Goals­and­their­successors,­the­Sustainable­Development­Goals­or­increasing­ discussions of migration and the claims of migrants, for example.57 It is increasingly acknowledged that rights need to be secured for migrants, workers and refugees, as well as for those stateless persons who have not moved. Globally,­there­is­realisation­that­individuals­are­vulnerable­to­States­far­away­and­ theorists and policy-makers alike have been seeking ways to secure rights in this context. There has also been increasing recognition of the interconnection between these various instances of noncitizenship. The noncitizenism I present brings this work­together.­It­offers­an­analytical­tool­that­allows­the­specific­vulnerability­–­and­ the challenge – of all of these individuals’ relationships with States to be understood together. This addresses a core problem in contemporary understandings of liberal ism,­and­some­of­the­inherited­difficulties­from­liberalism’s­problematic­past. ­ Another­way­to­see­this­challenge­is­through­an­image.­Gohar­Dashti’s­photo graph of a couple embracing in the desert, alongside their pile of belongings, is desolate. But it is also challenging. There is something in it that does not make sense. We do not know how the couple came to be in the desert. And it is not clear how they will live if they continue to be here. Their bodies and their belongings seem small and futile in comparison to the dry of the desert around them and the rocks behind them. And yet, Dashti writes of the series of images, entitled ‘Stateless’, of which this is a part: Maybe­ it­ is­ only­ at­ this­ point,­ when­ nature­ can­ be­ a­ safe­ haven­ for­ these­ refugees. Sky becomes the ceiling and mountains the walls of their new home; because Nature is the only promising place that shelters these people, an eternal and everlasting refuge. The photographs are taken in the desert, reportedly staged on the island of Qeshm­in­the­Persian­Gulf.58 The environment seems inhospitable but, as Dashti 57 This is picked up again in Chapter 11. 58­ Cate­ McQuaid­ (2016)­ ‘­“Stateless”­ photographs­ timely­ and­ timeless’,­ The Boston Globe 12 January­ 2016,­ www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2016/01/12/images-from-iran-filled-with-mystery­ drama/FUsk3FGuXukdGLEZt1AOgI/story.html­(accessed­4th­April­2017)].­That­they­are­taken­ in Iran and not a State identifying as liberal democratic does not detract from the power of the images in the context under discussion in this book.