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How international law impacts on statelessness and citizenship: the case of Kurdish nationalism, conflict and peace1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Latif Tas
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Abstract

This paper argues for a new approach to understanding statelessness. It explores the limits of international laws on statelessness and the relationships between statelessness, diaspora and nationalism. It discusses how the condition of statelessness has affected Kurds, and how statelessness has been constructed and experienced at an individual and collective level in the diaspora. It argues for an expanded definition of the international laws of ‘stateless’ person: adding to the accepted de jure and highly contested de facto definitions, by also suggesting a third, new, category of ‘socially stateless’ people. The paper examines the concept of diaspora itself from the perspective of Kurdish interviewees and explores how, for stateless groups like Kurds, ‘living in diaspora’ can mean more than one place, including their land of origin. It will suggest the concept of ‘double’ or ‘multiple’ diasporas, where stateless people do not feel that they belong either to their country of origin or to the country in which they now live. The paper discusses the idea that when an ethnic community is stateless, then even those individuals who have an official nationality, citizenship or passport may often describe themselves as stateless. The relationship between statelessness, diaspora and nationalism is highlighted; and the impact of this on diaspora involvement in homeland politics, conflict and peace is explored. The paper also argues that the lack of protection which international law(s) offer around statelessness paradoxically create new forms of nationalism.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 42 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

1

This paper was commissioned by the Leverhulme-funded Oxford Diaspora Programme project, (Re)Conceptualising Stateless Diasporas in the EU: Intersections between Individual and Collective Statelessness amongst Palestinians and Kurds in France, Italy, Sweden and the UK. An earlier version of this paper was submitted to the University of Oxford International Migration Institute (IMI) working paper series. I would also like to thank the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Social Anthropology, Department of Law and Anthropology, and especially the Director of the Institute, Professor Marie-Claire Foblets for her very generous support during my visiting fellowships. I am also grateful to Professor Nadje Al-Ali, Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Dr Caroline Mawer for their comments on earlier versions of the paper. The research was only made possible thanks to the Kurdish families and individuals who shared their diverse stories with me.

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