In the aftermath of the Cascade, when national governments lost the capacity to maintain infrastructure, provide security, or enforce law, corporations filled the vacuum — not as service providers but as sovereign entities. Your passport is your employee ID. Your citizenship is your employment contract. Your rights are your benefits package, subject to annual review.
The Rothwell ecosystem operates explicitly as a nation-state: Nexus Dynamics provides surveillance and security (the military), Helix Biotech provides healthcare (contingent on productivity metrics), Good Fortune provides housing and basic needs (at company-store prices). Leaving a corporation isn't quitting a job — it's emigration. And the destination is usually the Dregs, because no other corporation will hire someone who's been "released" without a transition agreement.
Corporate refugees — people who've lost their employment-citizenship — are the fastest-growing demographic in the Sprawl. They are stateless in the most literal sense: no access to corporate infrastructure, no healthcare, no legal identity in the systems that matter. Brand loyalty has become patriotism, corporate policy has become law, and the annual performance review has become a citizenship hearing. The most chilling phrase in the corporate lexicon: "We wish you well in your future endeavors" — which is what they say when they deport you.