What Does It Mean to Belong?

Linda K. Kerber asks the question, “What Does It Mean to Belong?” and considers the changing meanings of the concept of statelessness over the long twentieth century, from the emergence of the problem in the aftermath of World War I and the geographical changes made by the Treaty of Versailles,  to our own time, when the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees has substituted a more fluid measure  of “ineffective nationality” for the old category of statelessness.  The implications of these changing meanings are of grave importance in our present moment, when populations with insecure nationality floods the globe as refugees, asylum seekers, trafficked persons, and irregular migrants. As irregular migration carries more and more people across international boundaries, new restrictions are being added to nationality rules.  I expect to consider the reasons for the UNHCR’s shift of definition, and the developing debate in the US on our clear tradition of birthright citizenship.