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Stories & Experiences

Learn from individual experiences shared by other community members that might help you in your situation. Or help others by sharing your own experiences

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PrinceHelpful Companion

published in Stories & Experiences

My Stateless LifeCommunity Voices

Dear Diary, it's me, Prince Lenny Penaloza... Today, just like every other day, the struggles continue as a stateless person and there's just one sentence to summarise it all, "a visibly horrific, inhumane existence" boosted by several laws and policies in place by the system that deprives me of basic human rights, hence making life literally a living hell. In other words, only who feels it knows it, because the descriptions of existing in such a situation as a stateless person in today's modern world are heart-wrenching. Even in a world where the various levels of systematic breakdowns and further sub-breakdowns of human classifications amongst "the haves and have-nots" are clearly visible – which in itself is a sad reality – being stateless goes further down the inhumane system ladder because it's an existence without existing when you don’t matter or count in regards to having and exercising the basic human rights just like everyone else. Yes, the world, as we know it, revolves

PrinceHelpful Companion

published in Stories & Experiences

Mental Health & StatelessnessCommunity Voices

Deutsche Version untenMental health issues within stateless people is a problem that's often overlooked in general because of some clear and unclear reasons.Some of the reasons could be, a stateless person not having access to basic health insurance/care, not having the financial capability or support of buying/paying for prescribed medications needed, the systematic policy pressures of a state (nation) that makes the daily life of a stateless person feel like a non existing being within that same state, like listening to a broken record on repeat. The absence of inclusiveness, the denial of their existence and basic rights as humans, the pain of constant rejection by branches of a state, and to some extent in the social space, can easily lead to a dangerous breaking point that affects emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, at which an unhealthy decline mind is birthed.Mental health shouldn't be kept under the radar because it actually plays a huge role on all individuals

Frances TimberlakeRising Companion

posted in Stories & Experiences

New podcast episode on statelessness in the UK

ENS has recently done a collab with Refugee Action’s ‘Experts by Experience’ podcast in the UK, and some fantastic community members spoke about the experience of statelessness and the intersection between stateless and the asylum system, in the UK. Please give it a listen!Twitter: https://twitter.com/ENStatelessness/status/1686026071659982849?s=20Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvZQXVhs7B4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

NosuCompanion

posted in Stories & Experiences

You are invited: Making statelessness visible - A photovoice project !

asked in Stories & Experiences

stateless in lebanon

Hello my name is khalil, I am a stateless young man, I am 22 years old, I live in Lebanon, the country in which I was born, I suffer a lot, because I am in a country that does not recognize my existence, I have a Laissez-passer that I can travel with, please help me to travel to any country that embraces me and that I can belong to, I have great hope in Life, but I will not be able to live as long as I am in a country that considers me a stranger, even though I was born here. I want to live and feel that I am like other people. I suffer a lot in all fields. There is no medicine, no civil rights, no aid, nothing. Any country that makes me belong to it. I will save him with my soul, I will respect his laws, customs, traditions, people, I will love him as if he was the country in which I was born, please help me ❤. Whats app : +96170286957 / instagram : khalil.alromhi

REALA.Companion

asked in Stories & Experiences

Citizens' Office does not want to recognize my statelessness

hello guys, first of all I would like to thank you guys for publishing such a great site. I have been recognized as a stateless person for almost 2 years. Before that, I was registered as an Unresolved Citizen with the authorities. Now to my problem, I wanted to apply for a registration certificate (Meldebescheinigung) at the German citizens' office, since the registration certificate contains the citizenship, I asked the employee to change this from uncleared to stateless and then presented my travel document for stateless persons. Since the employee was not familiar with this, he asked a supervisor. She didn't want to change it, as other documents have to be presented to prove this. It didn't make any sense to me at all. When asked what documents I have to present, she got angry and expelled me from the building. Is it normal to be treated as if you were a second class person just because you are stateless? With the German naturalization one can prove one's statelessness with the tra

LynnRising Companion

published in Stories & Experiences

Between Anger & Bitterness: About getting my status recognised and being the “Lagom Swede”Community Voices

It took me a while to process the end of an eight year fight with the Swedish asylum agency and getting a paper that one day might put an end to my statelessness.Before I share my story with you, I would like to start with Kehlani’s words: “My condolences to anyone who has ever lost meAnd to anyone who got lost in me or to anyoneWho ever felt they took a loss with meMy apologiesFor the misunderstandingOr the lack thereof” I was 22 when I arrived in Sweden. I am 30 now. It took me eight years to get my refugee status recognized. I would love to tell everyone who congratulated me that I am not a fearless, courageous, selfless warrior. I am not a queen of resilience. The truth is I am a rootless tree in exile: I inherited a stateless refugee status in 1992 and have been jumping from one status to another since then, expressing myself in any language but my own! The 26th of April 2022 was a normal day. I was working from home and had a meeting at 15:00. A few minutes into the meeting, I lo

StatefreeStatefree Team

published in Stories & Experiences

New on The Statefree Pod: Lynn and Karmel share their thoughts on identity, belonging and statelessnessCommunity Voices

A new episode of The Statefree Pod is out! This time, Lynn & Karmel share their thoughts on identity, belonging and statelessness 👉 Listen to it on Spotify or Google Podcast.Lynn and Karmel have a lot in common: both were born stateless in Damascus and attended the same school. Both belong to the third generation of Palestinian Syrians and both live in Europe now. And yet, their views on identity and statelessness are very different. Listen to this episode to learn why living in a bubble can have advantages, how statelessness has saved Lynn’s life and how the experience of statelessness has made them the people they are today.Find the episode here on Spotify or Google Podcast.______________________Music by Blin The project ‘The Statefree Pod’ was funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

StatefreeStatefree Team

published in Stories & Experiences

Gazmen and his wish for the children of the future: Listen to our latest podcast episode in Italian & SpanishCommunity voices

Do you speak Italian and understand Spanish? Then the new episode on The Statefree Pod is for you: 👉 Listen here on Spotify or Google Podcast In this bilingual episode, Gazmen talks about his experience of statelessness and the administrative and family reasons that resulted in statelessness. A conflict between nationality laws (jus solis and jus sanguinis) keeps him in statelessness. Having lived many years in Italy, he only managed to get his statelessness recognized in Italy after 12 years. Now in Germany, his situation is still uncertain, even though he was born there. Informed by this struggle and the discrimination he experiences as Roma, Gazmen’s greatest wish for the future is clear: that no child in this world should grow up stateless anymore. Find it here on Spotify & on Google Podcast Apolide e cittadino del mondo: Il mio desiderio per i bambini del futuroParlate italiano? Allora avete trovato l'episodio perfetto di questo podcast sull'apolidia. Gazmen parla della su

StatefreeStatefree Team

published in Stories & Experiences

Statelessness and human rights: Fighting for social change through art and activismcommunity voices

Dear Community, our new podcast episode is ready for you! In this episode you will have the pleasure to listen and learn from Prince and Aleksejs. @Prince and @Aleksejs have two completely different backgrounds, but have both found a way to confront their statelessness through art and activism. Prince found strength in his work as a music artist. Aleksejs founded Apatride Network, a collective for stateless people in Europe. In this episode we hear what it was like for them to speak publicly about their statelessness for the first time and what consequences it brought about why both are convinced that we need to reach out to everyone, including those with a different opinion and about why the voices of stateless people are necessary and valuable for international representatives to address the lack of knowledge and existing misconceptions. Trigger warning: this episode addresses human trafficking, sexual abuse and racialised violence. Listen here (on Spotify or Google Podcasts) an

Mascha DismanCompanion

asked in Stories & Experiences

Für Artikel Interview Partner:in gesucht

Liebe Community, ich bin Mascha und Teil des diesjährigen Jahrgangs des Mentoringprogramms der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher:innen. Da es mir ein großes Anliegen ist staatenlose Menschen zu supporten, palästinensischen Stimmen Gehör zu verleihen und so meine Solidarität (auch als Jüdin) auszudrücken, würde ich sehr gerne einen Artikel schreiben, der all diese Komponenten bündelt. Daher würde ich mich sehr freuen, wenn eine Person, die ebenfalls diese und weitere Eigenschaften hat, sich bei mir meldet und wir uns im Rahmen des eignen Wohlbefindens austauschen könnten. Würde mich sehr freuen. <3

ChristianaStatefree Team

asked in Stories & Experiences

Community member is searching for legal support in Turkey

Dear Community,One of our community members is looking for a lawyer who can support them in seeking proper protection and a secure legal status. Do you have any recommendations of lawyers/paralegals/law firms based in Turkey who are able to advice a stateless individual?It would be very much appreciated🙏🏿!@ISI @Amal de Chickera @TamaraS @Laura van Waas

WinifredCompanion

asked in Stories & Experiences

THERE IS HOPE FOR STATELESS REFUGEE CHILDREN

Hi Community,I am so excited to have found this group and be a part of it. I look forward to meeting and sharing ideas with everyone as regards the issue of statelessness in the world. I believe there is hope for stateless refugees including children and I appreciate all those working together in unity to eradicate statelessness.Shout out to Christiana for all the work you do.

globalstatelessnessmovementCompanion

posted in Stories & Experiences

Calling all Stateless individuals / those affected by nationality issues...

Hi everyone! We are planning to officially launching the Global Statelessness Movement later this year and for the launch, we will be screening a video of stateless people reading out the Manifesto in different languages. We are therefore calling on stateless individuals across the world to record a video of yourselves reading out the Manifesto.We will be making videos in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian and Malaysian. The link to the several language translations of the Manifesto are here: (Arabic/English/French/Russian/Spanish/Malaysian).Those wishing to contribute are invited to record their reading in their native language (or, if preferred, in one of the languages above). If you do not wish to show your face, you can record your voice reading it out instead, or a video of your hand writing it, or any other creative ways that you can think of. Video GuidelinesPlease use your phone or zoom to record the video/audio. Please record during the daytime and preferably outdoors,

ISIOrganisation

posted in Stories & Experiences

Preventing and solving statelessness in European law - new blog by ISI's Caia Vlieks

⚡️ New blog by Caia Vlieks, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion's Research & Education officer, presenting findings from her PhD, analysing legal approaches to #statelessness within the #EU, examining the role that European #law may play in preventing & solving statelessness.https://lnkd.in/dV32Bbwj

180DC MunichCompanion

posted in Stories & Experiences

Please Take a Few Minutes for this Survey and Help Our Community Grow!

Hi Statefree Community, We are 180 Degrees Consulting, a non-profit student consultancy. We are surveying people who have or have had personal experience with statelessness on behalf of the platform Statefree. The survey helps us to understand how the Statefree community can improve its ways of supporting its members.All the answers to this survey will be kept entirely anonymous and will not be linked to you as a person. Every opinion is valuable and insightful. Please take 10 minutes to fill out the following survey: English: https://forms.gle/grN51pFnM7boQfeJ6 German: https://forms.gle/uWfaat7m3hHUekyh8 Chinese: https://forms.gle/M3yqWBZ7Kori5Hfh6 French: https://forms.gle/nwjjR1yg8CnY9n8RA Thanks in advance for your participation and best regards, 180 DC Team

ISIOrganisation

posted in Stories & Experiences

Become an intern at the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion!

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR THE SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2022 ISI INTERNSHIP INTAKE! ISI recruits interns to assist with research and advocacy on statelessness and human rights within various ISI programmes. Our interns are responsible for tasks including desk research on topics in the field of statelessness and human rights; compiling and analysing human rights documents such as those issued by UN treaty bodies or under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism; undertaking comparative analysis of law, policy or jurisprudence from different national legal systems; and more.Application Deadline July 1st 2022, 5pm UK For more information about the internship and how to apply, please click HERE

MaureenCompanion

asked in Stories & Experiences

Statelessness determination procedure - Master thesis in Switzerland

Hello dear community, I am writing my thesis on the current situation in Switzerland on the statelessness determination procedure (SDP) or the lack thereof. I am researching what the most important legal measures are to ensure a fair procedure. Right now there are no specific laws in place regarding the SDP. The procedure currently relies on general administrative procedural law. This can lead to challenging situations in the procedure. I am focussing on the fact that, the procedure in Switzerland is primarily in written form, the standard of evidence is very high and to access free legal aid and translation assistance high requirements have to be met. If you are interested in the issue or maybe even have personal experience or knowledge I would be happy to chat and share more of my work! It does not matter if there is no link to Switzerland, as this is an international topic per definition 🇨🇭🌍🌎🌏 Just send me a personal message 😊 Kind regards,Maureen

ISIOrganisation

posted in Stories & Experiences

A day in the life of Aleksejs Ivashuk

ISI interviewed Aleksejs, a non-citizen from Latvia, on his experiences of fleeing the Ukraine war, as a stateless person.Read the full interview here!

hgmichnaCompanion

posted in Stories & Experiences

Adoption

First, a disclaimer. I am not a lawyer, so all I found and write here is at best an educated guess. And I recognize that the fight against the laws, rules and regulations that keep people stateless is the first priority. Some might refuse to even consider any shortcuts to freedom like marriage or adoption, because it is degrading to subordinate such deeply personal matters to the circumvention of laws and regulations, no matter how bad these are. In the view of this and the many difficulties and problems with adoption, I can only guess that for many stateless people adoption is not an acceptable way to go.On the other hand there may be a few situations where marriage or adoption are appropriate for one reason or another. In such a case it is useful to know the rules and to know what to expect. Marriage is an obvious case. I have not found a legal rule that marriage, or adoption, always conveys statehood, but I’m as good as certain that it does.I will write about some of the basics that

ChristianaStatefree Team

published in Stories & Experiences

Opening a bank account in Germany

In case you are in the process of opening a bank account in Germany: We recently tried to open one for Statefree. As you can imagine, verifying my identity was a bit of a hassle, but it did work in the end. We chose the “Postident” process and I was surprised that there was at least a little knowledge around different forms of identity documentation stateless people have. My context: I have a “Reiseausweis für Ausländer” aka travel document for foreigners and a residence permitThe bank: GLS Bank Ways that didn’t work: Verification via PostIdent App - Although the app did offer a drop down menu with different document types (see screenshot below) I couldn’t finalise the verification in the app. Might have been a technical issue, so maybe it works for you ... Verification at the post office - The alternative was to go to the post office and verify my identity in person with my document. Unfortunately the post office is using a specific machine to scan and check the document. This mac

StatefreeStatefree Team

published in Stories & Experiences

Intro to Knowledge & Insights 👋: What can I do here?

Welcome to the space for knowledge & insights from people’s experiences What this space is forThis category is for you to Ask for advice and other people’s experiences ‍♂️ around statelessness issues that affect you Proactively share experiences that might help other stateless people or allies Participate in co-creating a source of truth around statelessness Inspiration on what to post 3 Tips for this space #1 When asking a question be clear about what exactly you need and what your context is #2 Don’t share any detailed personal information publicly (e.g. picture of ID, personal numbers etc.) #3 When responding to a question, make it explicit that this is only a subjective advice and not a professional legal consult for example Not sure how to create a post? Click here to learn more

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