ABSTRACT
The non-recognition of noncitizenship makes individuals particularly vulnerable to States and the State system, raising difficult questions for contemporary lived liberal democracy. The failure to acknowledge this reality contributes further to the 'activation' of the noncitizenship. The depth and implications of noncitizen vulnerability are nuanced, affected by context and by recognition. These relate to different ways in which noncitizen-ship is activated. These can be seen in different locations of burden-bearing: On the territory of a State; At State borders; physically far from a State; and Potentiality. The problems Phillip Cole raises with assumed exclusion and Bas Schotel's movement of the justification burden from individuals to States are compelling. The underlying problem with which both are contending is the theoretical dominance of citizenship, and in particular of citizenship and quasi-citizenship as the core way in which to assign rights and the core designator of legal personhood.
