Conceptualising statelessness and belonging : The cases of Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and UK

• Dr Eliassi's presentation explored how statelessness is experienced and narrated by members of the Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. Concerning the broader debates on statelessness that have focused mainly on the acquisition of nationality/citizenship as a solution to the political and existential vulnerability of stateless individuals and collectivities, Eliassi's presentation illustrated that while the acquisition of citizenship is important, it has also its limits in understanding the everyday life of people who consider themselves to be stateless in the world of nation-states. In Sweden the majority of Kurds have Swedish citizenship but claim to be stateless. The notion of statelessness is used to motivate transnational political mobilization and to maintain a politicised identity.10 In this context, citizenship can become a device of inclusion as well as of exclusion as the notion of ‘We are all citizens’ can maintain political inequality. In fact, the liberal citizenship tradition cannot fully accommodate the political grievances of stateless people like the Kurds because, as long as the sovereign identities are not decentred in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Kurds by large will continue to perceive themselves as an endangered nation. Dr Demir, the discussant, highlighted that in the world of nation states, the issue is not that of statelessness but of master identity: the task has to be to de-master the dominant master identity as we all live in multi-national states and the idea of ‘Nation States’ is a discourse, a claim that does not exist in reality.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Internationell migration och etniska relationer (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- International Migration and Ethnic Relations (hsv//eng)

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