Statelessness and Worldlessness

Het Goethe-Institut is de wereldwijd actieve culturele instelling van de Duitse Bondsrepubliek. Wij bevorderen de kennis van de Duitse taal in het buitenland en de internationale culturele samenwerking.

Goethe-Institut Niederlande

A conversation on Hannah Arendt and the erosion of statehood, human rights, and belonging in the 21st century

Goethe-Institut Amsterdam

<p>As wars force people into exile and climate change drives communities from their homes, the idea of the state as a protector is steadily eroding. According to UNHCR, about 122 million were refugees, stateless people or forcibly displaced persons in 2025 — a figure likely underestimated. Denied basic rights such as education, employment, and healthcare, these individuals embody a global crisis Hannah Arendt foresaw in her essays We Refugees (1943) and The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man (1951). Having herself become stateless after fleeing Nazi Germany, Arendt offered enduring insights into democracy, human rights, and the essential freedom of individuals—insights that remain strikingly relevant today.<br>Through a combination of lectures, conversations, and poetic readings, we revisit Hannah Arendt’s reflections on statelessness and explore their resonance in contemporary politics and the continuing legacies of imperialism — together with Dr. Shahin Nasiri (Lecturer in Political Philosophy, University of Amsterdam), Dr. Nawal Mustafa (Assistant Professor in Black Studies, Critical Race Studies, and Indigenous Studies, University of Amsterdam), and Palestinian-Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun.</p>

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Statelessness and Worldlessness

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Statelessness and Worldlessness

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