Aleksejs Ivashuk was born in Riga, Latvia. Due to unexpected political maneuvering after the collapse of the Soviet Union, his family became “non-citizens,” de facto stateless in their own country. The minorities in Latvia were deprived of equal labour rights, minority rights, property rights, and other human rights. 

 

From an early age, Aleksejs grew up in the United States and Canada. In Canada he finished his Bachelor’s and Master’s studies. He completed an Honours Philosophy and BA Political Science degrees from University of Winnipeg, and received a Master’s in Political Science from Simon Fraser University. 

 

In May of 2016 he made a difficult decision to move back to his home continent of Europe, where he feels at home despite being a stateless European. From that point onward, Aleksejs became active as a researcher and lecturer on the topic of statelessness in the European Union, cooperating with a number of international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration and European Network on Statelessness.