I’m on a trip to Washington D.C. today with a client, United Stateless, which is putting on a film. A fancy law firm is hosting us on Capitol Hill and we’ve invited hill staff along. It’s an educational and awareness-building event for a congressional bill on statelessness. The Biden administration has also promised to fix the issue this year and we’re hoping they do it.
If you’re in DC today and would like to come along to the event, please do. Or you can forward the invitation on to friends you may know there. And drop me a line so I can say “hello”. Thanks!
You might not have heard of “statelessness” before. But it’s when no country will claim you as a citizen. You end up in this weird legal limbo. The film features stateless people talking about their experiences. They all have their own stories. But discrimination and geopolitical crises like the war in Ukraine are a common cause. One stateless man survived the Nazi Holocaust and spent decades in America struggling to get a green card. Others flee governments who despise their ethnicity. The mental health toll on stateless people is significant. Even if they want to be deported, there is nowhere to deport them to. Whatever the cause, statelessness puts people in a bureaucratic limbo that robs them of the chance to lead a full life. They are often separated from their families abroad for decades. Even after years of marriage their partners worry they’ll be detained.
We plan to make the film more public later in the year, but first we’re applying to film festivals all over the world. The sad irony is that the stateless people in the film won’t be able to attend the festivals if it’s accepted. They lack documentation to leave the country. It’s a nightmare of red tape and I hope congress or the administration fixes things soon. Especially since there are only about 200,000 stateless people in the U.S.—less than the crowd at a couple of college football games.
One of the great things about United Stateless is that the people involved have a sense of community. I like them all a lot, and they have all made big contributions to this country. One co-founder of the organization ran half a dozen gas stations for 20 years, sometimes working 30-hour shifts. A member of the board runs a boba tea shop and is trying to open another location, right now. They’re entrepreneurs, artists, and businesspeople. In some cases their families faced religious discrimination back home. So you can imagine that a gathering of stateless people is always full of interesting conversation. For me, it’s a major plus when I work with a client if I enjoy their company and they seem to like me, too. I have always enjoyed working with people who deserve more acceptance in American life—perhaps because as an immigrant, myself, I’m always conscious of the fact that people tend to look on me differently just because I happen to have a British accent and I’m a white guy with two passports. Privelege is what it is.
It takes about four hours on the train to get to DC from New York, but they do have wi-fi onboard. I’m also going there and back in a day, today, so that I can maximize time with my son Freddy and my wife Logan. But I’m proud and delighted to support this organization with its important work.
