     group identity, as stateless persons face discrimination not simply because of their individual legal status but also because their legal status is commonly associated with certain social prejudices connected to their group identity. The contributions to this volume explore these important issues from a range of different disciplines and research approaches.18 We align ourselves with the emergence of the study of statelessness as a multidisciplinary field, partly in response to the realization that while statelessness is ‘fundamentally a legal concept’, a strictly legal approach to the study and analysis of statelessness is inadequate to fully understand the phenomenon and to protect stateless persons.19 Multidisciplinarity brings a variety of perspectives arising from different methodologies to construct a richer and more nuanced examination of statelessness as a multifaceted phenomenon.20 Further, by investigating the scope and nature of statelessness among affected populations in Asia, this book invites a trans-regional conversation on statelessness and aims to set a comparative research agenda to enhance the understanding and reduction of statelessness in Asia. While grounded in concrete situations of statelessness in Asia, the contributors – predominantly from the region – bring their expertise into conversation with broader themes and issues that transcend individual case studies. 1.2 Does a Book on Asia Make Sense? As a preliminary matter, two questions immediately arise, namely, how do we define Asia as a region and why focus on it in particular? As to the first issue, there is of course no unassailable definition of what formally 18 We acknowledge the work of other authors exploring the issue from a regional perspective, see Amal de Chickera and Laura van Waas, ‘Statelessness in Asia: An Entrenched but Solvable Problem’ in Fernand de Varennes and Christie Gardiner (eds), Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia (Routledge 2018). 19 In his symposium contribution to the first ever issue of the pathbreaking The Statelessness & Citizenship Review, Baluarte called for the institutionalization of a multidisciplinary approach to the study of statelessness: David Baluarte, ‘The Arrival of “Statelessness Studies”’ (2019) 1 (1) The Statelessness & Citizenship Review 156 <https://statelessnessandcitizenshipreview .com/index.php/journal/article/view/69> accessed 4 August 2023 (‘The Arrival of “Statelessness Studies”’). See also Michelle Foster and Laura van Waas ‘Editorial’ (2019) The Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(1), 1 <https://statelessnessandcitizenshipreview.com/ index.php/journal/article/view/83> accessed 4 August 2023. 20 Baluarte, ibid 157–158. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009399555.003 Published online by Cambridge University Press