The God School: Informal Christian Education and Emerging Aspirations Among De Facto Stateless Children Living in Cambodia

Statelessness research to date has mainly focused on legal analyses and the plight of adults who are seen to have little ‘navigational capacity’. Children are often regarded simply as those caught up in the complicated lives of their parents or guardians. Very rarely are the voices of stateless children heard, still less are their aspirations documented. This paper foregrounds children’s experiences and argues that despite appearing to be ‘stuck’ in a position of liminality, de facto stateless children have much to teach us about the differing roads to aspiration. An analysis of the everyday lived realities of Cambodia’s stateless children reveals how religious identity, specifically through Christian conversion, becomes central to how their aspirations are socially produced, and how these aspirations come to assist them in navigating ethnic and institutional exclusion.