Refugees face numerous challenges in their lives. They are often forced to migrate due to war or famine, becoming displaced in their own or neighbouring countries. Many refugees from regions like Asia or Africa pay agents to smuggle them into Europe or America, undertaking high risks in the process. Examples include refugees from Darfur region of Sudan, Palestinians, Burmese, and Bangladeshis. These people lose their identities and security when they are forced to leave their homes.

The concept of national citizenship assumes that the state can provide protection and rights needed to live with dignity. However, refugees often lack this citizenship, leaving them without basic rights and protection in any country they reside in.

The concept of global citizenship could benefit refugees significantly. It might make it easier to deal with problems that extend across national boundaries and require cooperative action by people and governments of many states. This approach could help find acceptable solutions to the issues of migrants and stateless peoples.

Most importantly, global citizenship could ensure that refugees are granted basic rights and protection regardless of the country in which they may be living. It would shift the focus from state-guaranteed rights to human rights, providing a more genuinely universal identity than national citizenship. This would address the limitation that individual states cannot tackle refugee problems by themselves.