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Stateless by any other name: refused asylum-seekers in the United Kingdom
- Authors:
- BLITZA Brad K., OTERO-IGLEIAS Miguel
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(4), April 2011, pp.657-673.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
There is growing recognition that people who cannot claim protection from their country of nationality may be effectively stateless. The authors suggest that there are certain aspects of the UK asylum system which may lead to this statelessness-like situation. In order to understand how this can happen, they reconsider Hannah Arendt's concept of statelessness, which entails three losses of home (exile), state protection (basic rights) and having a place in the world (political rights). The impact of negative asylum-application decisions on applicants’ access to rights is examined through interviews (n=19) with refused and long-term asylum-seekers in Oxford and London, and one focus group. The study demonstrated how a lack of protection by and from the state negatively impacted on the respondents’ personal identity and created a situation of arbitrariness, rightlessness and extreme vulnerability. This central conclusion calls into question the application of key principles of human rights as they relate to refused asylum seekers, especially the tenets dignity, non-discrimination and the right to a family life.