Kafkaesque systems: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of lived experiences of stateless migrants within the UK
- 1Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- 2Helen Bamber Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Abstract
Statelessness affects an estimated 4.3 to 10 million people worldwide, denying them access to fundamental rights including education, employment, healthcare, and freedom from arbitrary detention. While stateless individuals are recognised as a marginalised group at elevated risk of human rights violations, discrimination, and trauma, the psychological impact of statelessness remains under-researched. This study aimed to explore how adults with lived experience of statelessness in the UK make sense of its impact on their mental health, and how they access support for any psychological difficulties. A qualitative design using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used. Seven adults affected by statelessness were recruited through non-governmental organisations using purposive sampling. Participants varied in the reasons why they had been affected by statelessness, country of origin, and current immigration status in the UK. Four group experiential themes were generated. Trapped in a Kafkaesque System captured participants’ experience of draconian, discriminatory, and self-perpetuating bureaucratic structures that stripped autonomy, security, and time. Erosion of Self and Belonging described feeling administratively reduced to a non-person, dual legal and relational abandonment, and severed connections. Psychological and Embodied Harm located anxiety, depression, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and somatic symptoms unambiguously within structural conditions, with two participants reporting that UK procedures damaged their mental health more than prior experiences of incarceration; intergenerational effects of the impacts of statelessness were also identified. Survival Strategies and Systemic Limits captured the protective role of community, faith, activism, and equipped services, while emphasising that resilience was bounded and could not substitute for rights. The findings articulate a pathway in which Kafkaesque systems produce entrapment, erode the person’s sense of identity, belonging and connection to others, and generate psychological and embodied harm only partially mediated by coping. Implications include the need for policy reform (reduced waits, restored and adequate Legal Aid funding, the right to work and healthcare access during protracted legal processes), clinician training, and services that recognise statelessness-related distress as legitimate clinical territory rather than deflecting responsibility to immigration authorities.
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BibTeX
@article{mulcaire2026kafkaesque,
title = {{Kafkaesque systems: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of lived experiences of stateless migrants within the UK}},
author = {Jessie Mulcaire and Ciarán O’Driscoll and Leah Holt and Sana Zard and Francesca Brady},
journal = {PLOS Mental Health},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pmen.0000756},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/mentalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmen.0000756},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Kafkaesque systems: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of lived experiences of stateless migrants within the UK
AU - Jessie Mulcaire
AU - Ciarán O’Driscoll
AU - Leah Holt
AU - Sana Zard
AU - Francesca Brady
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - PLOS Mental Health
DO - 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000756
UR - https://journals.plos.org/mentalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmen.0000756
AB - Statelessness affects an estimated 4.3 to 10 million people worldwide, denying them access to fundamental rights including education, employment, healthcare, and freedom from arbitrary detention. While stateless individuals are recognised as a marginalised group at elevated risk of human rights violations, discrimination, and trauma, the psychological impact of statelessness remains under-researched. This study aimed to explore how adults with lived experience of statelessness in the UK make sense of its impact on their mental health, and how they access support for any psychological difficulties. A qualitative design using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used. Seven adults affected by statelessness were recruited through non-governmental organisations using purposive sampling. Participants varied in the reasons why they had been affected by statelessness, country of origin, and current immigration status in the UK. Four group experiential themes were generated. Trapped in a Kafkaesque System captured participants’ experience of draconian, discriminatory, and self-perpetuating bureaucratic structures that stripped autonomy, security, and time. Erosion of Self and Belonging described feeling administratively reduced to a non-person, dual legal and relational abandonment, and severed connections. Psychological and Embodied Harm located anxiety, depression, suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and somatic symptoms unambiguously within structural conditions, with two participants reporting that UK procedures damaged their mental health more than prior experiences of incarceration; intergenerational effects of the impacts of statelessness were also identified. Survival Strategies and Systemic Limits captured the protective role of community, faith, activism, and equipped services, while emphasising that resilience was bounded and could not substitute for rights. The findings articulate a pathway in which Kafkaesque systems produce entrapment, erode the person’s sense of identity, belonging and connection to others, and generate psychological and embodied harm only partially mediated by coping. Implications include the need for policy reform (reduced waits, restored and adequate Legal Aid funding, the right to work and healthcare access during protracted legal processes), clinician training, and services that recognise statelessness-related distress as legitimate clinical territory rather than deflecting responsibility to immigration authorities.
SN - 2837-8156
ER -