Statelessness in the context of the migration crisis in Europe : a growing challenge for the international community

Statelessness remains a secondary topic in the debate on the migration crisis that has been raging across Europe since 2015, but it will certainly come to the fore in the near future. This paper draws attention to the issue of limited social and scholarly interest in statelessness in the context of the present migration crisis. The research explores how Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan nationality laws (as the majority of protection seekers come from these countries) regulate the issue of acquiring citizenship and why this gives rise to the problem of statelessness. The paper concludes that the lack of interest in the issue of statelessness is a growing challenge for the international community and requires systemic action. A ‘stateless generation’ may never become part of any society, which may in turn give rise to social conflicts in the countries of current residence. The author concludes by putting forward some suggestions for solving this problem from global, regional, state and civil society perspectives.