Stateless in the Digital Age

Stateless in the Digital Age delves into the complex ways smart technologies, including biometrics and digital communication tools, are reshaping the lived realities of stateless and displaced populations. While these technologies propose opportunities that may empower refugees, migrants and marginalized populations in accessing information, education, critical resources and services, they also present new challenges, from digital divides to systemic discrimination and heightened surveillance.

Focusing on the Rohingya and Assamese Bengalis in South Asia, this book uncovers how digital identification practices such as biometric registration can exacerbate exclusion, restrict mobility, and erode human rights. It sheds light on the resilience of stateless communities through practicing invisibility in everyday life situations as well as navigating fluid borderlands, even as the digital era complicates survival without an official identity. While digital platforms such as Facebook have enabled empowerment, they have also become a space for escalating hostility. The digital cultural practices and networks of stateless youth are both important as a coping mechanism as well as a form of resistance. Drawing on case studies and critical insights, Stateless in the Digital Age illuminates the paradox of technology as both a tool of empowerment and oppression.

This timely work offers a novel academic lens on the pressing issues of identity, digitalization, citizenship, and the human rights of stateless people-both in South Asia and beyond. Targeting scholars, policymakers, and Human Rights advocates, it challenges readers to rethink the implications of technological control in an increasingly interconnected yet divided world.