"Statelessness strips people of their right to exist, but it doesn't have to be this way. As Filippo Grandi and Cate Blanchett highlight, 'There is no justification for statelessness; there are solutions.' For over 200,000 stateless people in the U.S., the daily reality includes lack of access to basic rights—like education, work, and identity documents. These are not just bureaucratic challenges; they define lives and futures. At United Stateless, we believe in elevating stateless voices and fighting for the solutions that already exist. It's time to take action, and we’re committed to advocating for the Stateless Protection Act to ensure every person can access their fundamental rights.
You can’t get a job or have a bank account and basic benefits are not an option as you don’t officially exist. But your family needs feeding, so you take any work you can find – irregular, poorly paid, maybe dangerous. You’d call a relative to ask for help but your phone isn’t working because your SIM card has vanished. No school has any record of your child so is unable to register her, and the classroom door shuts in her face. This gives you a taste of how things are for stateless people – though for many of them statelessness is not a sudden affliction but something they have endured since birth. ✍️ Cate Blanchett, actor and Goodwill Ambassador for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, write for Context. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/efe4-Xw2