National identity is therefore a complicated topic in the context of the Middle East. For the sake of this discussion, however, it is important to know that various cultural communities, whether they called themselves qawm or umum plural for umma , came to consider themselves nations.
At the same time, many of those, did not possess a state of their own, and some continue to be without a state.
Stateless Nation Various cultural communities came to consider themselves nations and were also able to establish a modern nation-state based on that identity. Many, however, never established their own nation state. Many of the nation states of the Middle East formed their national consciousness after the establishment of their state, however. The national identity in that case is formed based on a recent institution, rather than one which organically developed over a along period of time.
States that developed their national consciousness after the formation of the state do not have a national history that ties to a unique cultural community. For example, Arab-majority countries of the Middle East all share Arab identity, language and heritage, although they have very different national identities.
An example of governmental and non-governmental collaboration has come from Malaysia. This concerned the identification and registration of stateless Indians of Tamil descent, who had migrated to Malaysia during British colonial times. Expanding civil registration : In , states in the region proclaimed the Asia Pacific Civil Registration and Vital Statistics CRVS Decade with the goal of improving civil registration systems by , including achieving universal birth registration.
These initiatives have reinvigorated CRVS efforts. After reforming its civil registration law and providing a more flexible registration system, Thailand now has the highest birth registration rate in the region, with Vietnam and the Philippines following closely. Yet, replicating this success has been challenging, especially in states with high income disparities, such as Indonesia, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
Even in countries with high registration rates, persistent pockets of low registration exist , mostly affecting marginalised and hard-to-reach populations. Discrimination, inequalities, hidden costs, linguistic and logistical barriers, as well as difficulties with late birth registration, all pose challenges for achieving universal birth registration. Reforming laws and improving legal protections : Tackling deficient or discriminatory nationality laws can improve protections for those affected by statelessness.
This law reform also addressed the situation of Indonesian migrants living overseas, who would no longer lose their citizenship if that would render them stateless. In , Vietnam instituted legal reforms that enabled restoration of Vietnamese nationality to women and children from cross-border marriages, and also enacted a condition requiring renunciation of citizenship to be subjected to confirmation that a new nationality was obtained.
Furthermore, many states have now enacted laws that protect foundlings against statelessness. Reducing statelessness through naturalisation : Given the scale of statelessness in Southeast Asia, prevention alone will not suffice.
One solution entails facilitating the acquisition of nationality through naturalisation. This is particularly true for cases of in situ statelessness, where the only viable solution is the acquisition of the nationality of the country in which people have resided for generations. Effective responses to in situ statelessness, such as in Myanmar, have yet to be developed.
In , Cambodia embarked on a census among its Vietnamese minority , although it remains unclear whether this will result in a pathway to Cambodian nationality. Vietnam resolved the situation of more than 10, refugees from Cambodia, who fled during the s and were not considered nationals by the Cambodian government. After requirements for documentary proof were eased, since , these former displaced populations have been able to acquire Vietnamese nationality.
Statelessness remains a widespread problem in Southeast Asia. However, growing interest by states is an acknowledgment of the detrimental effects such exclusion has on economic development, social cohesion and stability. The initiatives undertaken during the past decade have led to the reduction of statelessness in some states.
While the Philippines has thus far been the only state in the region which has aligned itself with relevant international legal frameworks, Thailand and Vietnam both show that determined government action is the key to resolution. However, enhanced efforts at identification are also making more affected populations visible.
Moreover, persistent problems remain regarding protracted situations of in situ statelessness — often nurtured by longstanding discrimination, such as in Myanmar and Cambodia — and the continuous growth of intra-regional migration. Addressing these problems calls for upscaling many of the responses identified in this blog, including further awareness-raising, capacity development among officials and more generous naturalisation programs for long-term resident populations without proof of nationality.
Such action requires political will, long-term strategies and the mobilisation of a broader coalition of actors. Non-governmental actors have also moved closer together, including by forming the Statelessness Network Asia Pacific in Without legal rights as citizens, the Rohingya are subject to discriminatory and unjust policies that restrict their movement, confiscate their land and severely limit their access to health care, education and employment.
The conflict began when Rohingya militants attacked police outposts in Myanmar. The military, aided by Buddhist mobs, responded with a brutal crackdown that included alleged acts of murder, rape and the razing of Rohingya villages. The U. This one is a bit tricky. Palestine is not a country , even though member states of the United Nations recognize Palestine as its own sovereign state.
Two very critical countries do not: Israel , which considers the whole of Palestine as "occupied territories" within its borders; and the United States, which refuses to recognize Palestinian independence. Palestinians aren't a homogenous ethnic or religious group like the Kurds and the Rohingya. What Palestinians share is the claim that they were displaced from their historical homeland — in this case during two Arab-Israeli conflicts in and In , the United Nations decided to divide the country of Palestine an area of about 2, square miles or 6, square kilometers into a Jewish state which became Israel and an Arab state.
This was deeply opposed by the resident Palestinians, who started mobilizing for war — coalitions of Arab nations attacked Israel in and again in A total of 5.
Better known by the derogatory term " gypsies ," the Romani or Roma people have suffered ethnic persecution in Europe for centuries. The first Roma migrated from Northern Indian between the 13th and 15th centuries , and the Romani language still shares many words in common with Hindi.
The term "gypsy" comes from the false belief that the Roma originated in Egypt. Because the Roma don't believe in the ownership of personal property, including homes, they have always lived on the fringes of European society, drawing suspicion as thieves, occult worshippers or worse.
The Roma lived in relative peace in the former Yugoslavia, but when the communist country broke up in the s, hundreds of thousands of Roma were displaced by armed conflicts in Balkan states like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. Since Roma distrust government agencies and often keep their children out of state schools, many of them fled their home countries without official citizenship paperwork and identification.
This made it difficult to impossible for them to establish citizenship in their new countries like Macedonia, Montenegro and Italy. Untold numbers of Roma remain stateless in the Balkans and mainland Europe. Some 10, to 20, live in Italy without Italian citizenship. In Macedonia, an estimated , to , more Roma struggle to find work, health care and housing without the necessary citizenship papers, even though Roma families have now lived there in exile for generations.
In the summer of , the world was fixated on the plight of 12 young soccer players and their coach trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand. Not all of the trapped players were Thai, though. Three of them, plus their coach, were stateless. Thailand is home to an estimated 2 to 3.
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