Statelessness and Displacement: The Cause, Consequences, and Challenges of Statelessness and the Capabilities Required of Social Workers

This chapter explores the impact of being statelessness on individuals and communities who are displaced. It starts with an overview of statelessness, the numbers those people affected, the major stateless populations around the world, how statelessness is created and perpetuated and the presentation of two case studies of displaced stateless populations. Following this, it covers the challenges that statelessness poses to those affected by it, as well as to social work practitioners working with them are presented. These are broken down to macro, meso and micro challenges. To assist the readers in overcoming these challenges key knowledge, capabilities and approaches for social workers supporting stateless persons are set out. The chapter concludes with discussion points for students and pedagogy suggestions for those leading courses on statelessness and displacement.