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Permanently Waiting: The Kenyan State and the Refugee Protection Regime

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Citizenship, Belonging, and Nation-States in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Hannah Arendt (2003) argues that stateless persons, owing to their lack of citizenship, no longer have the right to have rights. She does not advocate for this condition but rather highlights the misleading nature of the discourse on human rights. Regardless of a rhetoric that claims everyone is guaranteed certain rights simply because they are human, Arendt notes that in reality when one loses a claim to citizenship, one loses access to rights (Arendt 2003: 42). Refugees and the stateless, those who are arguably in need of the greatest protection of their human rights, lose their access to these basic rights when they flee or are expelled.

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Authors
  1. Erika L. Iverson
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Nicole Stokes-DuPass Ramona Fruja

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© 2016 Erika L. Iverson

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Iverson, E.L. (2016). Permanently Waiting: The Kenyan State and the Refugee Protection Regime. In: Stokes-DuPass, N., Fruja, R. (eds) Citizenship, Belonging, and Nation-States in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-53604-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-53604-4_9

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-55624-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53604-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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