I am originally from Riga, Latvia. Just like over 200,000 people in Latvia, I am a “non-citizen” of the country, effectively de facto stateless. It’s a complicated history, but in a nutshell minorities were deprived of equal access to citizenship when the country became independent from the USSR. Pre-independence there were official promises made by leading politicians that this will not happen, but these turned out to be completely misleading. The country never bothered to reconcile this history.

I am more lucky compared to other stateless in Latvia because I grew up in the U.S. and Canada, where I was able to access equal opportunities in education and employment. However, when I made a difficult decision to move back to Europe despite my statelessness, I encountered discrimination and other problems due to it. In September 2020, I founded Apatride Network (www.apatride.eu), which works to connect and empower stateless people from all backgrounds in the European Union. Christiana has been a valuable member of our network. We’re happy to see the long-awaited launch of statefree.world community

If there are any stateless people here who are looking to connect to other stateless people in the EU, feel free to reach out to our network! Naturally, the invitation extends to anyone else interested in the subject of statelessness.