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Statelessness affects an estimated 4.3 to 10 million people worldwide, denying people access to fundamental rights, including education, employment, healthcare and freedom from arbitrary detention. A person can become stateless through systemic discrimination, lack of birth registration or the revocation of citizenship.  

Stateless individuals are recognised to be at increased risk of human rights violations, discrimination, and trauma. However, the psychological impact of statelessness is under-researched. This study aimed to explore how adults with lived experience of statelessness in the UK make sense of its impact on their mental health, and their experiences of accessing psychological support. 

In this study, researchers at UCL and the Helen Bamber Foundation, conducted interviews with seven adults affected by statelessness. Participants varied in their country of origin, circumstances of statelessness and current UK immigration status. 

These were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), which examined how individuals make sense of their experiences in detail.  

Four themes emerged:  

1. Trapped in a Kafkaesque system: 

Participants described feeling captured in a bureaucratic system, that was not only difficult to navigate but experienced as actively causing them harm through discriminatory treatment and stripping participants of autonomy, security, and control over time. 

"It's sort of like there is no way out of this, it's very Kafkaesque. It's like I just keep going round and round in circles and that's the problem with statelessnes: having to prove a negative." 

The Home Office was described as "more than hostile, draconian" - leaving participants feeling both criminalised and dehumanised by the very institutions they had turned for protection.  

2. Erosion of self and belonging:  

As a result of the system that traps stateless individuals, participants described becoming "unknown" and losing their identity. 

"Being... mistreated... not allowed to work, not allowed to study, not allowed to do anything because I don't exist in their eyes, they referred to me as X unknown. That is very hurtful and degrading." 

3. Psychological and embodied harm: 

Participants described pervasive anxiety and depression directly related to their experience of statelessness. Several had been prescribed medication to manage their mental health problems, and several reported suicide attempts following prolonged periods of waiting for legal decisions and a loss of hope.  

The findings also highlighted the intergenerational impact of statelessness, with participants concerned that their experiences and psychological distress could affect their children. Psychological harm was experienced as systematically produced and sustained.  

4. Survival strategies and systemic limits 

Participants drew on communal, internal and professional resources to survive. Some participants also benefited from psychological support where services understood their circumstances. However, statutory mental health services were often described as poorly equipped to recognise statelessness-related distress. 

Whilst resilience was able to carry the participants through episodes of adversity, it could not substitute for the change of documentation.  

"When you, for one or two time of a failure, you can absorb. But if the failure starts to be continuous, then you start to lose hope... you don't start to think anything about life. Only a piece of paper can change the whole thing."    

Policy implications: 

The authors argue that the psychological harm associated with statelessness is produced and sustained by systemic conditions, rather than being an issue of individual vulnerability.  

The findings of this study clearly demonstrate the need for policy reform to reduce waiting times in stateless determination procedures, restore access to Legal Aid, and provide the right to work and healthcare during protracted legal process. 

The paper also highlights the need for mental health professionals to receive training on statelessness and for services to recognise statelessness-related distress as a legitimate clinical concern.  

Read the full paper in PLOS Ment Health here.