Myanmar nationality law

Myanmar nationality law currently recognises three categories of citizens, namely citizen, associate citizen and naturalised citizen, according to the 1982 Citizenship Law.[1][2] Citizens, as defined by the 1947 Constitution, are persons who belong to an "indigenous race", have a grandparent from an "indigenous race", are children of citizens, or lived in British Burma prior to 1942. Under this law, citizens are required to obtain a National Registration Card (နိုင်ငံသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, NRC), while non-citizens are given a Foreign Registration Card (နိုင်ငံခြားသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, FRC). Citizens whose parents hold FRCs are not allowed to run for public office.[3]

Myanmar has a stratified citizenship system (from the 1982 Citizenship Law), based on how one's forebears obtained it:

Dual citizenship is not recognised by Myanmar. Naturalization in another country immediately voids Myanmar citizenship.

Foreigners cannot become naturalised citizens of Myanmar, unless they can prove a close familial connection to the country.[4]

The law does not recognise Rohingyas as one of the 135 legally recognised ethnic groups of Myanmar,[5] thus denying most of them Myanmar citizenship.[6]

References

  1. Tun Tun Aung (March 2007). "An Introduction to Citizenship Card under Myanmar Citizenship Law" Check |url= value (help) (PDF). 現代社會文化研究 (38): 265–290.
  2. "Burma Citizenship Law". Government of Burma. UNHCR. 15 October 1982. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  3. Soe Than Lynn; Shwe Yinn Mar Oo (20 September 2010). "Citizenship criteria trips up election candidates". Myanmar Times. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  4. "Myanmar Immigration Policies". eHow. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  5. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21564909-when-offending-muslim-world-seems-small-price-pay Myanmar’s Rohingyas: No help, please, we’re Buddhists
  6. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21565638-why-buddhists-and-muslims-rakhine-state-myanmar-are-each-others%E2%80%99-throats-unforgiving
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