The problem with the Comoros solution

Affect, citizenship, statelessness and the Kuwaiti Bidoon

Bibliographic Data

ID4846889
AuthorsFiorella Rabuffetti (University of Ottawa), Emily Regan Wills (University of Ottawa, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume29
Issue1-2
Pages77-93
Publication date2025-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2025.2475834
OpenAlexW4408618914
LanguageEN
References cited33

The Kuwaiti bidoon are a subset of the nomadic population of Kuwait who have been made stateless, classified as illegal residents and increasingly deprived of social rights through changing classifications by the Kuwaiti government. In 2014, the Kuwaiti government attempted to obtain citizenship in the African island nation of the Comoros for the bidoon, which would have provided them with a route to legal residency. But would this have provided a just resolution to the bidoon‘s situation? We argue that justice for the bidoon must not simply serve to resolve their de jure statelessness; it must, instead, attend to the injuries produced by this status, most importantly the harm caused by continuous rejection of their affective attachment to Kuwait. In dialogue with theories of access to citizenship and political identification with a state, we argue that under certain circumstances, providing citizenship can increase the harm experienced by stateless people, and that only providing recognition of their affective tie to a political community can resolve it

Citizenship · Ethnology · Political science · Sociology · Statelessness · Communication · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Middle East Politics and Society

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