Ontheland

For this week’s Haikai Challenge we are contemplating ‘independence’ in the context of America’s Independence Day; the detainment of children attempting to cross the southern U.S. border; or another context we choose. My mind went to the plastic and laminated cards in my wallet that confirm my Canadian status, my rights and freedoms acquired at birth. After some rumination these haiku came to mind:

.

barbed wire –

legal barriers

at national borders

.

.

stateless –

privileges dissolved

in a black hole

.

.

jus soli

my nationality

planet Earth

.

.

Statelessness is a condition that applies to millions of people worldwide. The Wikipedia article on the topic opens with:

In international law, a stateless person is someone who is “not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law”. Some stateless persons are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many persons who are stateless have never crossed an international border.  On 13 November, 2018, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned there are about 12 million stateless people in the world.

jus soli, meaning ‘right of the soil‘ is a criteria used for determining nationality based on place of birth.

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