When was it that you decided where to be born? When did you choose whom to be born to? Tell me, in effect, what it was that you did to merit the citizenship that you hold.
It’s a funny thing, this status we call citizenship. We don’t give it too much thought. We accept that when we are born we should be identified as belonging to a particular state through birth on its territory, or because we were born to someone who is a citizen of that state. We accept that birth certificates, passports, national identity cards and the like should serve to identify who we are and where we are from. We rarely question that these state-issued documents of belonging should condition our ability to obtain certain state services or to enjoy the rights, freedoms and protections that are associated with holding citizenship from one state over another. In effect, the web of “people ordering” that states have created to encompass the globe through their nationality laws and practices seems to work almost effortlessly.
Except when you fall through it. Then you realize how difficult it is to actually formally belong anywhere.
