These men, women and children are scattered across six continents and excluded from virtually all the benefits of nationality. From Rohingyas in Myanmar to Nubians in Kenya and Bidoon in Kuwait, stateless people live without the protection or recognition of a government.

The UNHCR and countless United Nations proclamations have tried to address this lingering problem.

Worldfocus’ project “Stateless to Statehood” examines the root causes of statelessness in the post-colonial period.

Click on the highlighted countries for more information, much of which was provided by Forced Migration Review and Refugees International.

Imagine you have no birth certificate, no passport and no legal rights. You’re trapped in the country where you were born, but no document indicates that you even exist. The state doesn’t recognize you, so you can’t vote, you can’t access education and you can’t obtain formal employment.

This is a worst-case situation, but across the globe, between 12 and 15 million people live in various stages of statelessness, which means they lack citizenship in any country.

Some of the most notably stateless people include the Palestinians of the Middle East, the ethnic Tutsis of Central Africa, some Roma in Europe and Haitian children in the Dominican Republic.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the common themes that surface among stateless people — economic discrimination, social exclusion, identity and the feeling of invisibility.

Read a full transcript.

Martin Savidge hosted the following guests:

Bill Berkeley, previously an investigative reporter and editorial writer at The New York Times, teaches journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa and a forthcoming book on statelessness.

Dawn Calabia is a senior adviser for Refugees International. She has 30 years of experience with foreign policy analysis, human rights issues and public advocacy. She has handled governmental and non-governmental relations in the U.S. and the Caribbean for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and has led numerous fact-finding missions to Central America, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa.

The show also includes audio clips from:

Julia Harrington, a senior legal officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, who explains how her organization uses legal channels to advocate for stateless people. Julia has brought cases before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Adam Hussein, who was born stateless as a Nubian in Kenya, and is currently the project coordinator of the Open Society East Africa Initiative.

Samira Trad, the director of Beirut-based Frontiers-Ruwad, a human rights NGO.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Ben Piven

Nationality laws vary greatly around the globe.

In Greece, for example, some children face insecurity and confusion because they are not Greek citizens, despite being born in and living in the country. In Japan, the government may pass a law granting 20,000 mixed race children Japanese citizenship.

When a child is born, he or she can gain a nationality in a variety of ways – from the place of birth or from parents’ nationalities or ethnicities; sometimes automatically and other times requiring an application process.

Standard basis for citizenship:
Jus soli — birthright — a rule that the citizenship of a child is determined by the place of its birth
Jus sanguinis — blood right — a rule that a child’s citizenship is determined by its parents’ citizenship

The chart below details the foreign populations in world countries, residency requirements for naturalization (excluding special factors such as marriage to a national) and types of citizenship.

Data is from 2005, the latest available date for comprehensive comparative information. For more detailed information on citizenship laws and requirements in a particular country, visit that country’s Web site.

	642,000 15.9% of population *	Residence for 1,350 days of past 5 years	Eliminated birthright  citizenship in 2006
	1.2 million 15.1% of population 40.9% are nationals	10 years continuous residence	Blood right
	585,000 14.1% of population 45.2% are nationals	3 years residence	Eliminated automatic birthright citizenship in 2004
	38.36 million 12.9% of population 46.4% are nationals	Legal residency for 5 years	Birthright
	10.14 million 12.3% of population	At least 8 years  residence	Blood right
	6.47 million 10.7% of population 53.1% are nationals	5 years residence	Blood right; delayed birthright (can acquire citizenship on request)
	5.41 million 9.1% of population	5 years residence	Many types of  citizenship (vary)
	974,000 8.8% of population 41.5% are nationals	10 of last 12 years	Blood right; birthright if  no other nationality  acquired
	2.52 million 4.3% of population 47.5% are nationals	10 years residence	Blood right; birthright if no other nationality acquired
	168,000 2.7% of population	3 years residence	Birthright
	1.11 million 2.3% of population	4 of 8 last years	Blood right
	124,000 2.3% of population	5 years residence	Blood right
	2.05 million 1.6% of population	5 years of residence	Blood right
	644,000 0.6% of population	5 years residence	Birthright; recognizes  dual nationality
	596,000 0% of population	Settlement in China	Blood right

*When data on foreign-born nationals is blank, the information is not available.
Sources: United Nations, NationMaster. Photos courtesy of Flickr users under a Creative Commons license.