Global InformationStateless nation information
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A stateless nation is an ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own sovereign state.[1] Use of the term implies that the nation has the right to self-determination, to establish an independent nation-state with its own government.[2][3] Members of stateless nations may be citizens of the country in which they live, or they may be denied citizenship by that country. Stateless nations are usually not represented in international sports or in international organisations such as the United Nations. Nations without a state are classified as fourth-world nations.[4][5][6] Some stateless nations have a history of statehood, while some were always stateless.
The term was coined in 1983 by political scientist Jacques Leruez in his book L'Écosse, une nation sans État about the peculiar position of Scotland within the British state. It was later adopted and popularized by Scottish scholars such as David McCrone, Michael Keating and T. M. Devine.[7]
Ethnicities described as stateless nations can be dispersed across a number of states (for example, the Yoruba people found in the African states of Nigeria, Benin and Togo) or form the native population of a province within a larger state (such as the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China). Some stateless nations historically had a state, which was absorbed by another; for example, Tibet's declaration of independence in 1913 was not recognized, and it was reunited in 1951 by the People's Republic of China - which claims that Tibet is an integral part of China, while the Tibetan government-in-exile maintains that Tibet is an independent state under an unlawful occupation.[8][9] Some ethnic groups were once a stateless nation that later became a nation state (for example, the nations of the Balkans such as the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Montenegrins and Macedonians that were once part of the multinational state of Yugoslavia and gained independence during the breakup of Yugoslavia).
Stateless nations can have large populations; for example, the Kurds have an estimated population of over 30 million people, which makes them one of the largest stateless nations.[10] Multiple stateless nations can reside in the same geographical region or country: the Tuareg, Toubou, Rifians, and Kabyle in North Africa; the Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Rakhine, Rohingya, and Shan in Myanmar; the Galicians, Cantabrians, Asturians, Aragonese, Basques, Catalans, Valencians, and Andalusians in Spain; and the Sardinians, Friulians, Ladins, Sicilians, Neapolitans, Ligurians, Piedmontese, Venetians and Lombards in Italy.[11]
- ^ Dictionary Of Public Administration, U.C. Mandal, Sarup & Sons 2007, 505 p.
- ^ Osborne, Louise; Russell, Ruby (27 December 2015). "Stateless in Europe: 'We are no people with no nation'". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ Chouinard, Stéphanie (2016), "Stateless nations", in Karl Cordell; Stefan Wolff (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Ethnic Conflict, Routledge, pp. 54–66, ISBN 9781317518921
- ^ David Newman, Boundaries, Territory and Postmodernity
- ^ Ethnic Minority Media: An International Perspective, Stephen Harold Riggins, 217p.
- ^ Language in Geographic Context, Colin H. Williams, 39p.
- ^ Verdugo, Richard R.; Milne, Andrew (1 June 2016). National Identity: Theory and Research. IAP. p. 85. ISBN 9781681235257. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2022 – via Google Books.
- ^ Clark, Gregory, In fear of China, 1969, saying: "Tibet, although enjoying independence at certain periods of its history, had never been recognised by any single foreign power as an independent state. The closest it has ever come to such recognition was the British formula of 1943: suzerainty, combined with autonomy and the right to enter into diplomatic relations."
- ^ "The Legal Status of Tibet". Cultural Survival. 22 February 2010. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
- ^ "Who are the Kurds?". TRT World. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World, 2nd Edition: Ethnic and National Groups around the World, pp. 59–60, 79–80, 366–367