The Plight of the Rightless: Mapping and Understanding Statelessness in Tripoli-V1.3
proportion of stateless people are obviously of Lebanese origin and have been deprived
of their basic right to belong to the society from which they very clearly emerged.
Perceptions and Identity
Statelessness is a source of embarrassment and perceived exclusion for the respondents. Most
of the stateless (87%) feel that perception changes when people know that they are stateless.
48% of them avoid mentioning that they are stateless, mainly because of embarrassment (57%)
or of exclusion (15%). Others are either too proud (14%) or too afraid of gossip (10%) to mention
that they are stateless.
Figure 10-Stateless self-perception
Paradoxically, there is an overall stronger trust in the State among the stateless (52%) than the
non-stateless (38%).49 One out of every two respondents blame their parents for the situation they
are in, with the other half blaming the State. Fifty percent of respondents hold their parents either
fully (33%) or partially (17%) responsible for their circumstances.
49
This could be due to a fear factor while answering the questions.
33