What does it mean to be invisible in a world defined by borders? Journalist Anna Rascouët-Paz brings you into the lives of citizens of nowhere and to the roots of statelessness in this documentary podcast series from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Chahut Média.
Statelessness: Citizens of Nowhere
Imagine living every day as if you don’t exist — unseen by the systems that define identity, rights, and protections. For millions around the world, statelessness means exactly that: no citizenship, no official recognition, no country to call home.
I am a journalist with a secure legal identity, a nationality and documents. But meeting Lynn al Khatib and Aleksjejs Ivashuk — young people denied these basic rights — has made clear to me just how fragile these privileges can be. Commissioned by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation in Geneva and produced by the team at Chahut Media, Citizens of Nowhere attempts to shed light on the human cost of statelessness.
Listen to Statelessness: Citizens of Nowhere.
Lynn’s and Aleksejs’ words strip the issue of its abstractions and lay bare the isolation that has defined their lives. For the stateless, every day brings into focus the rights they don’t have, and a struggle for recognition that feels impossibly out of reach. What does daily life look like for those who don’t have a nationality? This is the topic of the first episode of our series, “Children of Nowhere.”
This problem takes root in a much larger historical and political context. In the second episode, “Invisible Borders,” we look back at how the fall of empires and the rise of nation-states left entire communities in limbo. Historian Laura Robson recounts how emerging ideas and laws around nationality began to divide people into “insiders” and “outsiders” along borders that sometimes kept a most tenuous tether to lived realities. Statelessness, Robson says, isn’t an accident — it’s a byproduct of systems that decide who is “one of us” and who is not.
In the third episode, we examine how statelessness has endured for more than a century through mass displacement, but also for in-situ minority populations. The red thread is discrimination, compounded by a deep misunderstanding of the issue by those whose job it is to deal with refugees and the stateless. The problem is, first and foremost, recognition, definitions, legislation.
Progress is possible
But we also report on success stories that show progress is possible. In the last episode, “Bridges to Citizenship,” we zoom in on countries that have made huge strides. For example Kyrgyzstan has eradicated statelessness within its borders, and several Latin American countries are finding ways to grant citizenship for displaced people and indigenous populations. Chris Nash, director of the European Network on Statelessness, shares how recent advocacy efforts within the EU have finally secured some protections for stateless people. “It is eminently doable,” he says, pointing out that even incremental steps can have a major impact on people’s lives.
With Citizens of Nowhere, our team at Chahut Media and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Geneva set out to reveal the complex landscape of statelessness, blending history and policy discussions with human stories. While it was impossible to cover every aspect of this issue, we aim to offer listeners a compelling perspective on statelessness as both a legal puzzle and a profound humanitarian challenge, one that forces us to confront the limits of a system that would tie nationality to land and borders.
The many voices in this series remind us that this isn’t just about documents, but about something more essential: the need to belong. We hope you’ll listen, and that you’ll come away with a stronger sense of what it means to live a life unseen, and what it might take to build a world where everyone has a place to call home.
Register here for the launch event in Geneva, 27th November.
