In this paper I consider what contribution the political theory of recognition may be able to make to the understanding of noncitizenship. I want to argue that noncitizenship can be best understood as a status which combines misrecognition and nonrecognition. To be specific, noncitizens are not recognized (by a particular state) precisely so that they can be misrecognized (by that same state). In other words, they are denied the status of citizens so that they can become the objects of various injustices. To order to show what this looks like in practice, I consider the case of the Rohingya people of Myanmar/Burma. In the final section of the paper, this recognitive account of noncitizenship is briefly compared to Giorgio Agamben’s concept of homo sacer. My conclusion is that interesting parallels between Agamben’s argument and the recognitive thesis presented here point to fruitful avenues for future investigation.
