Excerpts from this 2021 article: US promises to define ‘statelessness,’ a first for the federal government
This is essentially a modern problem that didn't really exist when people lived in relative small communities and people were known by other people as their primary source of identity.
A stateless person is someone who does not have the nationality of any country, according to the United Nations, but the US doesn’t have its own definition, making it difficult for the federal government to understand the needs of this population.Being stateless imposes very significant barriers to establishing a "norma" (aka middle class) existence, which the article sort of understates with this description:
For instance, in the US, stateless people might lack identity documents, according to DHS.
...people around the world who are stateless have challenges including an inability to get jobs or government services and difficulty getting travel documents...The article implicitly presumes that stateless people come to the US from outside of its borders:
Stateless people may have arrived in the US as refugees, temporary visa holders or through irregular channels, according to the study, released in 2020.This overlooks the fact that you can be a homeless American with no documents who is facing the same barriers to accessing benefits, like food stamps or Medicaid, and trying to get a legitimate job (one not "paid under the table" or otherwise illegal).
This is essentially a modern problem that didn't really exist when people lived in relative small communities and people were known by other people as their primary source of identity.