Individual Decisions to Obtain Civil Documentation in Post-conflict Societies

• In Event: New Horizons of Violence, Peace and Instability Research

Abstract

Although legal identity is a fundamental part of governance systems around the world, a remarkable number of individuals remain under-documented, particularly in conflict-affected communities. We explore the conditions under which individuals acquire civil documentation in post-conflict environments. We argue that people in conflict-affected communities face long-term cost-benefit trade-offs when making decisions on their legal identity, but they also anticipate the state's supply of civil documents and consider short-term costs. Empirically, we combine a cross-national analysis of the predictors of documentation gaps, two conjoint experiments in Iraq focusing on perceptions of the demand and supply of civil documentation, and descriptive data from households affected by conflict in Iraq. We explore the relative importance of short-term constraints on access to legal identity as well as different factors that might plausibly shape the desire to be documented, including discrimination based on social group, access to public goods, and future extraction by the state.

Authors

• Sigrid Weber, Immigration PolicyLab, Stanford University

• Ala Alrababah, Bocconi University

• Alexandra Hartman, UCL