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New guidance, hope for stateless people living in America

2023-08-28 19:55:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Geopolitical developments, such as wars or the disintegration of states, as in the case of the collapse of the Soviet Union, can leave people stateless. As Voice of America correspondent Aline Barros reports, over 200,000 people in the United States have no citizenship.

Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, who lives in the United States, is not a citizen of any country.

"I was born in a country that no longer exists," she says.

She is one of about 218,000 people in the United States who do not have citizenship. Currently, the US Department of Homeland Security is establishing new guidelines to clarify what it means to be "stateless" for immigration purposes.

"They have taken a big step forward, to recognize people like us in this country," she says.

Ambartsoumian-Clough was born in Odesa, Ukraine, in 1988.

"I am the child of a marriage of parents with two different ethnicities; I'm half-Armenian and half-Ukrainian, and that background was problematic. My father was targeted because of his ethnicity in Odesa, Ukraine. My mother lost a pregnancy in my father's town because she was beaten on the street,” she confesses.

Her family left for Canada. Later, in 1996, they came to the United States, where their request for asylum was rejected. By now, the Soviet Union had dissolved in 1991, and Ukraine was an independent state.

"We went to the Ukrainian Embassy to get passports and travel documents to return. And then they told us, 'we don't recognize you as our citizens.'

In the United States, stateless people have no legal or identification documents to prove who they are and where they come from. Although some, such as Karina's case, may have an invalid birth certificate...

"The only thing I had at the time to prove who I was was an expired birth certificate from a country that no longer exists. My Soviet birth certificate, with a copy of the notarized translation. That was all I had.”

Others have nothing. And due to the lack of documents, they find it difficult to find work or even a house to live.

"They live in suspense. But physically, within the US, and it doesn't make sense that we can't find a solution," says Ms. Margaret Stock, immigration attorney.

According to the announcement, the Department of Homeland Security promises to provide examples of information and evidence that can be shown to immigration officials to help stateless people secure documents, such as a US green card.

“Me njerëzit që nuk kanë shtet, vazhdimisht hasim në probleme madhore, sepse ata thjesht nuk mund të dëshmojnë se përmbushin parimet për kartën e gjelbër ngase nuk mund të marrin dokumentet e nevojshme nga vendi i tyre,” thotë zonja Stock.

Por, njerëzit pa shtet nuk mund të dëbohen, sepse nuk kanë shtet se ku mund të kthehen.

Njëkohësisht, nuk ka ligj ndërkombëtar që i detyron njerëzit të kenë shtetësi në një vend të caktuar. Disa shtete ofrojnë shtetësinë nëse ke lindur aty. Disa shtete jo.

“Si përfundim, është shumë, shumë e mundur që njerëzit të mbesin pa shtet,” thotë zonja Stock.

Mbetet e paqartë nëse rregullat e reja amerikane do të lejojnë, që një pjesë e këtyre njerëzve të marrin dokumente identifikimi të lëshuara nga qeveria amerikane, apo autorizim për të punuar në këtë shtet.

Ms. Ambartsoumian-Clough hopes that the Department of Homeland Security's guidance will ultimately help people left in limbo, like her work./VOA