Paper short abstract:

Statelessness was normal but now becomes a stigma. Can stateless people win the battle for their recognition as equal members of centralized polities?

Paper long abstract:

Traditionally stateless societies have been by far most common during the long history of humankind. Used to their independence they fiercely opposed centralization processes which reached them either endogenously from chiefdoms or early states or through conquest by mature states from other continents. The tactics of resistance changed recently. The stateless people now embrace the idea of chiefdom or state as their best option. They are not satisfied by the fact that they are citizens of modern states by default. They want also their traditional chiefdomhood or statehood. But ethnic differences take on political guise and statelessness continues to be ascribed to them by chiefdoms and states. Even the modern state treats them as "tribals" or "chiefless" indefinitely. Statelessness is closely connected with powerlessness. Is there a way out of this situation?

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates identity and identification of statelessness in Japan. Will sort them bases on legal status and identification. Also this paper aims to clarify the gap of identity and identification of statelessness.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on stateless persons who reside in Japan, describes them based on their legal status, and analyzes their substance. Statelessness are those who do not have nationality nor are accepted as citizens from any country. According to the statistics of alien registration as of the end of 2012, the number of the people whose nationality is "stateless- mukokuseki" is 1,100 in Japan. On the other hand, however, according to the writer's research, it became clear that there actually exist people who do not have nationality of the nation they believed to have had at the time of their procedure for alien registration.

In this paper, we define stateless people as those who do not have valid nationality, in other words those who actually do not have rights and duties as citizens, and divided them into five types. From that sorting, we can see that there actually are of great variety even though we bracket them together as "stateless persons". We can understand that each stateless person of each type has different reasons for becoming stateless, has different situation he is in, and has different writing in nationality (or stateless) in his identification. We also reveal what kind of problems those stateless persons face lately since the residence management system was adopted in July 2012, and indicate the action that Japan is required to take according to each type of stateless person.

Paper short abstract:

Although the government accepts resettled refugees in Japan, they are stateless and need a settlement visa for being employed. This study discusses the living conditions of refugees, their invisibility, and the role of anthropological knowledge to widen perspectives about refugees.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese government has implemented the Refugee Resettlement Programme since 2010 as a five-year pilot project. This initiative was expected to salvage Japan's negative reputation as an inhospitable country for refugees. However, it was not successful. Japan has been accepting foreigners in an exclusive manner, especially in terms of legal status. Although resettled refugees have been accepted by the government, they are stateless. The law requires these refugees to update their settlement visa every three years. Refugees must submit a certificate of employment to extend their visa. As such, Japan accepts refugees only as part of its work force. Cheap refugee laborers tend to be "invisible" workers. They are also invisible for researchers, as the government does not provide any information, even details on the cultural orientation of refugees, in the name of protecting their privacy. Stakeholders, such as aid workers and journalists, condemn this policy and insist on determining the best way to accept refugees in local places where they settle. Although stakeholders are very conscious of realizing a multicultural society, Japanese society remains immature. The general understanding of "foreign culture" entails the 3 Fs of food, festivals, and fashion. Contextual knowledge of the where and how refugees lived in their places of origin is limited. The state regards refugees as cheap labor, whereas the general public sees refugees as unfamiliar, sometimes illegal, aliens. In this context, anthropological knowledge based on fieldwork is expected to help form an alternative model that deviates from the current bureaucratic approach toward multicultural society.

Paper short abstract:

Research on Palestinian refugees points to a “disposition toward suspicion” associated with refugeeness that highlights politico-moral economies of trust acting as “boundary maintenance disciplinary practices”. Such practices become essential components of the refugees’ social belonging processes.

Paper long abstract:

My ethnographic data about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Brazil, and Denmark points to a strong "disposition toward suspicion" associated with refugeeness. This, in turn, highlights politico-moral economies of trust that become "boundary maintenance disciplinary practices" among these refugees. The dynamics of suspicion and trust, propelled by uprooting, shape all groups, from social support systems and marriages to collective political, ethnic and religious allegiances. Furthermore, this dynamics also shape relations between these groups and others.

Uprooting tends to be associated with displacement of the subject's social order, bringing about an intensification of intra-group bonds concomitant to a radical experience of suspicion geared toward those outside this group. This process does not always give rise to high intra-group solidarity, but conceptually it does tend to polarize the group versus outsiders. This, in turn, heightens a necessity on the part of the subjects to reflect and shape both collective and individual networks of trust, which tend to be at least expressed in a moral idiom, even when decisions are more political in kind. Disenfranchised urban refugees tend to respond to this process in ways that are markedly differently than those living in refugee camps; refugees in the Middle East, Latin America or Europe also thread different social belonging arrangements. My proposal is to bring data especially from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, having other situations as a counterpoint, to discuss with the participants what may be more general to refugeeness and social crisis, and what is specific to the Palestinian case and/or context.

Paper short abstract:

There are several ‘stateless’ people northeast India . The Chakmas are denied basic rights. The influx of diaspora is traced to Indian partition and beyond. Immigration is reported from Burma/Myanmar and Nepal also. These issues are subject of an urgent anthropology in border areas.

Paper long abstract:

The influx into northeast India of diaspora is traced mainly to the partition (in 1947) and then in 1964 and then Bangladesh birth in 1970s. Immigration is reported from Burma/Myanmar and Nepal also. It is argued that India's refugee management is yet to take a transparent framework linking human rights, laws and policies, mainly in Northeast which is home to 'indigenous tribespeople'. Multiple sets of laws seem to operate in dealing with 'iimigrants'. Even when people are 'refugees', the question of citizenship unsettled. There are several 'stateless' people spread in northeast India and beyond. The Chakmas are one such 'tribe' who have two segments-one original indigenous and another 'émigré'/ partially recognised as 'refugee', but denied basic rights. Unlike the 'refugee' Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh, the Mizoram Chakmas are citizens of India, but they suffer from other disabilities like minoritiy syndrome.The problem of immigration from Bangladesh is a little over a century old. There are Muslims said to be 'illegal' immgrants. It is alleged by Assamese and many 'indigenous' tribal elites that massive Bangladeshi infiltration took place to Assam and other parts of north eastern states. Sections of Nepalis are similarly regarded as 'illegal' immigrants in northeast. There are areas in northeast such as Tripura where the indigenous tribes have been reduced to a minority over half a century. These issues are subject of an urgent anthropology in border areas.

Paper short abstract:

The Malaysian government, allied with transnational environmental NGOs, has worked to subjugate and suppress stateless Bajau Laut in Sabah through marine protected area establishment, emphasising the economic value of resources to the state over their significance to local communities’ livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

The geographic marginalisation of many stateless communities is often manifested in their location in close proximity to areas of relatively abundant natural resources or sparsely populated environments. This is particularly evident in Southeast Asia, where formerly nomadic maritime communities, such as the Sama Dilaut (or Bajau Laut, as they are known in Sabah), are treated as stateless as a result of Malaysian government policy setting forth criteria for identity cards. The tensions surrounding this situation are being exacerbated as federal and national government seeks to capitalise upon the biodiversity of marine resources through their promotion as tourist destinations or, more recently, assets to utilise in climate change mitigation programmes. Both of these require that stateless communities are subjugated, suppressed, and often moved out through a discourse which emphasises the economic value of resources to the state, for example their value for (dive) tourism revenue, over their significance to local communities' livelihoods. This in turn has been facilitated through powerful alliances between state institutions and transnational environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs), operating through such means as the creation of marine protected areas. This paper will examine how the state has recently sought to exert its power over stateless maritime communities in Sabah, eastern Malaysia. It will examine how communities have adapted and responded to this increased level of control and explore the implications of these policies with respect to the welfare and stability of stateless communities.