Workshop: Loss of Citizenship, Legal Identity and/or Legal Residency, University of Malta, Valletta Campus, September 11-12, 2024

Working Group 4 co-leaders David Zammit, Nir Arielli and Ibtisam Sadegh organized this workshop, which featured three engaging panels on the complexities of citizenship, migration, and statelessness.

Panel I: Marriage and Migration since the 19th Century featured Beate Althammer (on the impact of migration and marriage on citizenship in 19th-century Europe), Cristina Diac (on migration and resistance as grounds for losing citizenship in socialist Romania), and Dina Zbeidy (on marriage and citizenship among Gazan Palestinians in Jordan).

Panel II: Turkey and Loss of Citizenship in a Comparative Context followed, with Neriman Hocauğlu Bahadır discussing citizenship loss in Turkey and Tuğba Aydın Halispğlu exploring Turkey’s citizenship policy on stateless individuals.

Panel III: Present-Day Bureaucracies delved into contemporary issues with Innar Liiv examining the legal and technical frameworks governing E-Resident’s digital identity, Rozita Dimova discussing the crisis of citizenship and identity in North Macedonia, and Natalija Shikova addressing the challenges faced by unregistered individuals in North Macedonia.

Day 2 included a keynote on “Future Trends in Citizenship Governance” by Jaafar Alloul, followed by workshops and roundtables on legal advocacy by David Zammit and Diana Ungureanu, migrants’ experiences in Malta, and the intersection of state repression and individual agency in statelessness.

The Roundtable on Migrants’ Experiences of Residency, Identity, and Citizenship in Malta featured Hadia Bashar, Anas Alahmad, Oksana Solopko, and Kharim Rhazi. The discussion focused on the challenges migrants face in Malta related to their residency, identity, and citizenship, offering personal insights into the lived realities of migrant communities.

Workshop on Statelessness explored the intersection between state repression and individual agency. Samar Mazloum from UNHCR Malta shared reflections on the agency’s work with stateless populations, while Shtorn Evgeny discussed how statelessness can be used for political repression. Elsa Lechner concluded the session with a presentation on using biographical narration to reflect on themes of alterity and hospitality in the context of statelessness.

These sessions highlighted the importance of understanding stateless individuals’ structural challenges and personal stories, further advancing the dialogue on human rights and migration in contemporary Europe.