Rethinking Rightlessness: The "Right to Have Rights" and the EU-Turkey Statement

In The Origins, Arendt (1979) describes nationality or citizenship as a “recognized tie with humanity.” In other words, the right of humanity, or the term “right” in the right to have rights, entitles us to become a member of civil society which bestows us other rights (Benhabib, 2004). Therefore, the right to citizenship, or the right to belong to an organized community in a nation-state, is the right that conditions the possibility for the obtainment of other rights (Gündoğdu, 2015, p. 21): it is the conditio sine qua non.…