Social Identity and the Right to Belong – The ECtHR’s Judgment in Hoti v. Croatia

The article analyses the judgment of Hoti v. Croatia of the European Court of Human Rights which has to be seen as a landmark case for the rights of stateless persons in Europe. Recognizing the particular vulnerability of stateless persons, the Court finds a violation of the right to private life in Croatia’s failure to provide for an effective and accessible regularisation mechanism. Moreover, as this contribution argues, the Hoti case can be seen as a consolidation of the ECtHR’s social identity approach to protect the social ties of migrants in respect of the right to remain, the right to a legal status and the right to citizenship in the state of residence.