Michael Kagan is co-director of the Immigration Clinic and an associate professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law.On June 19, Professor Kagan was a guest on BYU Radio’s “Top of Mind with Julie Rose” for a segment titled “Statelessness,” (1:20:30 mark) in which he discussed refugees, statelessness and the crisis in Syria.
During the interview, he spoke about the reality that there’s really no clear path to overcome statelessness in response to host Julie Rose’s comment that these people “can’t change their ethnicity or bloodline to gain a citizenship claim.”
“…You have these groups that are stuck in this situation generation after generation, and these issues are often among the most sensitive politically in these countries because they … part with the countries’ sense of self and identity,” Professor Kagan said. “And so there’s a great reluctance to open the doors to integration for people who are considered foreigners.”
Professor Kagan spent a decade developing legal aid programs for refugees in the Middle East, and has written several of the most widely cited articles in the fields of refugee and asylum law.
