What is stateless?

What Does stateless Mean

The notion of stateless person is used to describe the individual who does not have a nationality . The term comes from the French word stateless , in turn derived from the Byzantine Greek language.

According to the United Nations ( UN ), a stateless person is someone that no state recognizes as a national . This means that there is no State that considers the stateless person as its own citizen according to the criteria established by its laws.
There are a number of reasons that can cause a person to become stateless. If you were born in a territory that is disputed by two or more countries , to mention one possibility, you can become stateless. The same if he had the nationality of a State that disappeared or if he is part of a minority to which the government does not grant the right to nationality.

A subject who has a certain nationality, on the other hand, can become stateless by an express provision of the State authorities or by his own will . In the first case, we can mention what happened to the members of the so-called White Movement , from whom the socialist regime took away their Russian nationality through a decree in 1922 .
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , on the other hand, became stateless in 1869 by his decision. That year, Nietzsche settled in Basel ( Switzerland ) and chose to renounce Prussian citizenship. Since he did not acquire Swiss citizenship or try to regain Prussian citizenship later, he was stateless for the rest of his life .
It is important to note that stateless persons are protected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ). A convention signed by many countries, meanwhile, safeguards their rights .
A related concept is the so-called stateless status . Let us remember that a statute is a rule or an establishment that has the force of law and that it creates to govern a body; It can also be understood as a special law for an autonomous region or as a legal regime to which property and individuals are subject in reference to their territory or nationality. In this particular case, it is about the protection that a State provides to someone who is recognized as stateless.
It is worth mentioning that this procedure is not very common; in fact, one of the few countries that have it is Spain. Its presence in the legal system of this nation is a reason for great legal certainty and is in fact recommended by the UN Refugee Agency (which is known by the acronym UNHCR ). This is included in the relevant Recognition Regulations, and allows the Ministry of the Interior to recognize as stateless those individuals who lack nationality and meet a series of requirements set out in 1954 in the Convention on the status of stateless persons .

This convention took place at the United Nations to reverse the lack of international protection for stateless persons. Thanks to the existence of this procedure, people who recognize themselves as such have the right to remain in Spanish territory and to carry out a job in an absolutely legal way. In addition, if there are no reasons of public order or security that prevent it, they also receive a card that proves their condition and a travel document that gives them the possibility of traveling outside of Spain.
At present, the people who make the procedure to start the application for this status automatically receive access to social benefits for those seeking asylum, although this is not specified in the regulations.