Young and stateless

What does it mean to belong nowhere? Across the world, millions of people are denied citizenship and live without a country to call their own. It is estimated that half of these are children.

We follow a new generation of young stateless individuals who are reclaiming the narrative. From the corridors of the European Parliament in Brussels, to Hungary where Aleksejs Ivashuk gathers experts and advocates from across Europe for the Apartride Network's Statelessness Awareness Forum Europe – the first conference of its kind, organised and led by stateless people themselves. Among them is Christiana Bukalu, who was born in Germany and founded Statefree, a community for folks like herself who are caught up in this legal limbo.

The majority of people are stateless, hold a special status of non-citizen, or are categorised as "undefined nationality" through no fault of their own – but the onus is often put on the individual to fight for access to rights that citizens take for granted. With insight from long-time experts, we discover how changes in borders, gaps in nationality laws, persecution, complex histories and gender discrimination play a role in the exclusion of millions.

Statelessness is a global yet diverse phenomenon but with many common experiences: we hear what it means to grow up without a passport, to be denied access to education, jobs, and healthcare, to navigate Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Yet this is also a story of resilience, of young people who are holding state actors to account and shaping a global movement for recognition and pride.

Presenter: Allan Little
Producer: Victoria Ferran
A Just Radio production for BBC World Service