| “To be stripped of citizenship is to be stripped of worldliness; it is like returning to a wilderness as cavemen or savages… they could live and die without leaving any trace.” Hanna Arendt Today, citizenship and the rights and protection afforded from citizenship have never been more vital to one’s participation and security in society. Yet the United Nations estimates some fifteen million people worldwide have no recognized nationality and are stateless. Without citizenship, stateless people belong to no country and are refused most social, civil and economic rights. In most cases, they cannot work legally, receive basic state health care services, obtain an education, open a bank account or benefit from even the smallest development programs. They are often deprived the freedom to travel, the right to own land or possess essential documents like an ID card, birth certificate or passport. As non-persons, they are excluded from participating in the political process and are removed from the protection of laws, leaving them vulnerable to extortion, harassment and any number of human rights abuses. Statelessness paralyzes them in poverty and constructs challenges that plague every aspect of a person’s life. Statelessness can come as a result of conflict, shifting borders or in the creation of a new state, but in most cases, statelessness is rooted in discrimination and intolerance. Many governments and people in power use citizenship as a tool to marginalize, exclude and disenfranchise those who they feel threaten their national identity or political, ethnic and personal interest. As a result, entire communities are denied an identity and are excluded from participating and contributing to places most have lived in for generations. Seen as outsiders and outcasts of society, stateless people are the unwanted and the unwelcome whatever the ground beneath their feet. Stateless people are invisible to most, yet the denial of citizenship impacts regions everywhere and rests as the root cause to any number of critical issues, including forced migration, human trafficking and even armed conflict. Recently, governments like the US, UK and the European Union have recognized the consequences statelessness has on security and human welfare and are joining international human rights organizations in creating legislation and programs to help combat and reduce statelessness. Yet in spite of the increased attention, very little effort has been made to intimately explore, document and expose the human face and personal histories and stories of stateless people. Nowhere People intends to give a small voice to people who for generations have had none. It aims to show the human toll the denial of citizenship has claimed on people and ethnic groups that find themselves excluded from society by forces beyond their control. More importantly, it hopes to provide tangible documentation of proof that millions of people hidden and forgotten all over the world actually exist. |