Adulteration of pure native blood by aliens? mixed race kapya in colonial and post-Colonial Myanmar

ABSTRACT

Colonization may be viewed not only as loss of sovereignty and territory but also of ‘purity’ of a native race to an alien power. After the British colonized Burma in the late nineteenth century, they brought in Chinese and Indians to the sparsely populated colony as labour for new administrative and economic activities. Intermarriage, mainly between native Burmese women and men of alien races – British, European, Chinese and Indian – was thus inevitable. Mixed-race peoples – kapya in Burmese – were then born out of these relationships, and their identities became a key political issue in colonial Burma. Importantly, all natives, foreigners, and kapya were British subjects at that time. Independent Burma from 1948 through 1962 was not expressly anti-foreigner/kapya; working to naturalize those who had overstayed or remained. However, the Ne Win government from 1962 through 1988 was openly against ex-foreigner and kapya citizens, passing a new citizenship act in 1982 to downgrade their citizenship to a second class tier. The Myanmar Citizenship Law (1982), which remains in force, has downgraded the legal, political and social stature of ex-foreigner and kapya citizens. A more problematic and racist term thway-nhaw or ‘adulterated’ race has come to the fore, being used in official law-like language in recent years and highlighting the racist roots of the Myanmar Citizenship Law.     

The Two Faces of Democratization in Myanmar: A Case Study of the Rohingya and Burmese Nationalism

The Rohingya have faced discriminatory policies and actions by the Myanmar government since independence in 1948, with many within the state seeing them as foreigners. This paper uses historical process tracing from pre-British colonialism to present day to argue that the persistent persecution of the Rohingya stems from the divergent experiences under British colonialism for the Rohingya and majority Burman population and, as a result of this, Burmese national identity forming around the dominant Burman ethnic group and the Buddhist faith. The government following independence, then, institutionalized this national identity, excluding the Rohingya as a part of the nation and denying their identity, arguing instead that they are “illegal Bengali immigrants”. As shown through this case study, the resiliency of these anti-Rohingya policies and attitudes within the Myanmar government through successive regime changes is a result of national identity being defined as both Burman and Buddhist, which remained constant. It also helps to explain how the political opening provided by the democratization process resulted in a number of anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya operations by Buddhist monks and other Buddhist nationalists, government policies, and even military operations.     

The Rohingya Crisis: The Centrality of Identity and Citizenship

The article examines the recent developments of Rohingya refugee crisis, especially in the aftermath of August 2017 violence which led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people across the border to Bangladesh. It analyzes the three-stage-plan proposed by China and the repatriation agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh and argues that ethnic identity and citizenship issues are fundamental to the Rohingya conundrum. Without addressing these core issues, which thus far have been paid little or no serious consideration, there is a danger of recurrence of violence. While the Myanmar authorities are ready to address some of the immediate concerns, such as providing accommodation and food, evidences suggest that the government does not have the political will, at least at the moment, to address the core issues of ethnic identity and citizenship, as well as the related security concerns.     

Forced Migration and the Expatriation of the Rohingya: A Demographic Assessment of Their Historical Exclusions and Statelessness

This paper attempts to outline the forced migration and consequent flee and displacement of the Rohingya Muslims in Northwestern Arakan State of Myanmar after several violent clashes and insurgencies between the Rohingya Muslims, the Buddhists and government security forces. More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar in August 2017 violence which has been described as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). Being only visible as “refugee problem” of this mass expatriation, the continuous forced migration and displacement of the Rohingya have been rendered invisible. In this context, this paper attempts a demographic assessment of Rohingya people through historical process of their exclusions and the magnitude of the forced migration to the neighboring countries as illegal, economic burden, stateless migrants. This paper analyses the historical origin of the underlying situation, identity politics, ethnic crisis, and statelessness for better understanding the demographic decline of the Rohingya in this geographic region. Finally, it highlights the international community's responses to this undergoing humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya.     

The Current Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar in Historical Perspective

This paper critically examines the longstanding Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. It argues that the crisis is rooted in the British colonial era that subsequently gained momentum through their (i) gradual marginalization as an ethnic minority, (ii) exclusion from the governmental institutions, and (iii) deprivation of citizenship, effectively rendering them stateless. Starting with a demographic profile of the Rohingya it explores the major elements of the crisis from the colonial period to the present day through a historiographical methodology. Based on these historical factors shaping and aggravating the crisis, the paper concludes with a mitigating recommendatory pursuit towards a durable resolution.     

中缅边境城镇缅甸籍人员生计方式与生活空间——基于云南瑞丽的调查

Against the background of good border trade policies and the prosperous economy of China, and in addition to the ethnic groups who have lived along the border for generations, a large number of Burmese nationals have entered the Sino-Burmese border area, seeking opportunities to work, trade and live. Among the population of for￣eigners living in China, Burmese nationals take fourth place. They are mainly distributed in the Si￣no-Burmese border areas. Based on an in-depth investigation of the Burmese nationals who have crossed the border and live in the Ruili National Development Experimental Zone, the paper points out the structural differences between those Bur￣mese nationals who belong to Cross-border Ethnic Groups and those who are cross-border migrants and who concentrate in and ethnic enclaves. It also specifies their different means of livelihood, living spaces and religious practices.
The survey shows that the Burmese nationals who belong to Cross-border Ethnic Groups can be traced back to the official border demarcation of the two countries in 1960 , when they migrated to towns and farms in Ruili, mainly through mar￣riage, and made their living by engaging in tradi￣tional agriculture, selling petty commodities, trading agricultural products, opening traditional restaurant/guest houses, offering tourism services or starting family handicraft workshops. They mainly speak their ethnic minority language, and are able to understand some Chinese. They are bound together by the same religious beliefs inside and outside of China. According to the investiga￣tion, since the marriage registration for Sino-Bur￣mese Border Area in 2006 , at the end of 2014 , there are 2331 registered transnational couples in Ruili City, all of whom are Burmese nationals who live along the border. Except for some Han People who married other ethnic peoples, the rest of the ethnic groups were endogamous. According to my field survey, which was confirmed by local woman cardees, the number of cross-border marriages in Ruili is actually much higher than this statistic. This is because, for a variety of reasons, a sub￣stantial number of couples did not go to the regis￣tration office.
As for the Burmese who are cross-border mi￣grants and who concentrate in ethnic enclaves, they are mostly Burman, Sino-Burmese, Burmese Indians and Burmese Pakistanis, and Arakanese. Since China’s 1992 policy to open the border, the Jiegao Bridge connecting China and Burma was built, and this group of people began to enter Chi￣na. In recent years, with the industrial transforma￣tion and development in the Ruili area, as well as the better social environment, more and more Bur￣mese nationals have crossed the border and settled down in Ruili, making a living by buying( or ren￣ting) houses, selling raw materials for jewelry and jade, processing Rosewood, and working as factory workers, construction workers, waiters and wait￣resses, and peddlers, etc. They mainly speak Bur￣mese ( Sino-Burmese are bilingual ) . Influenced and dominated by government policies, their choices of living areas are related to their ethnic i￣dentity, religious beliefs and economic power. The city of Ruili has undoubtedly left its mark.
In summary,although the “human migration”of a“Transnational class” under the background of globalization, including -immigrants, migrant la￣borers, and migrant businessmen, “Transnational social space” has been constructed in various meg￣alopolis like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, a more complicated means of livelihood and living space has been constructed by those Burmese nationals “who belong to Cross -border Ethnic Groups”, and those Burmese nationals who cross the border as migrants and live in ethnic en￣claves in the border cities and towns of Yunnan and Burma.     

Theorising the power of citizenship as claims-making

I advance a conceptual approach to citizenship as membership through claims-making. In this approach, citizenship is a relational process of making membership claims on polities, people and institutions, claims recognized or rejected within particular normative understandings of citizenship. Such a conceptual shift moves scholarship beyond typologizing—enumerating how citizenship is (or is not) about status, rights, participation and identity—to identifying the mechanisms through which claims on citizenship have power. This framework requires a relational approach and attention to dynamics of recognition within contexts of structured agency. Immigrants and their children can make claims to modify the normative content of citizenship, affect recognition evaluations and change the allocation of status and rights. But they are also constrained by legal structures, a society's institutional practices, and prevailing public perceptions. Citizenship as claims-making may require a reassessment of boundary approaches and a turn to metaphors of positionality, as well as more serious commitment to mixed-methods research. The stakes of understanding citizenship's power, as practice and status, are especially high right now. Yet based on existing scholarship, it is not entirely clear how much citizenship matters, in what ways, for whom, or why. This is the challenge for future scholarship.     

Citizenship in hard times: intra-EU naturalisation and the Euro crisis

Demarcated by growing austerity, economic uncertainty, and EU-exits, the past decade witnessed monumental shifts across the political and economic landscapes of Europe. Citizenship is a stabilising force in this era of crisis, particularly for intra-EU migrants. In this contribution, I examine how the Euro crisis impacted citizenship acquisition among these migrants. Building upon the model proposed by John Graeber’s article [2016. ‘Citizenship in the shadow of the Euro crisis: explaining changing patterns in naturalisation among intra-EU migrants.’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42 (10): 1670–1692], I discuss the relative importance of citizenship in times of crisis from global and regional perspectives. I argue Graeber’s theory presents a strong model for citizenship acquisitions during the crisis, yet leaves the core dyadic structure and several inconsistent findings unexamined. I replicate these models and introduce a dyadic model using bilateral data from 21 receiving and 23 sending states in Europe between 2007 and 2013. Contrary to Graeber’s theory, I find citizenship acquisitions among intra-EU migrants primarily coincide with increased in-migration, rather than influences of the Euro crisis. I conclude that while economic sending and receiving contexts matter, the Euro crisis did not appear to restructure intra-EU migrant citizenship incentives.     

Differential citizenship: questioning the dalit claim to equal citizenship through a projection of difference

Citizenship for dalits has been historically defined with relation to the demand for equality. However, this demand has witnessed a change in the last few decades where the agency of the dalits has manifested itself in the demand for a differential citizenship, where differentiation, and not homogeneity, has become the basis for the demand for equality. The study with the help of the textual analysis of Aravind Malagatti’s Government Brahmana and Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan argues that the demand for equal citizenship through the recognition of difference has created a paradoxical situation where the recognition of difference has not led to an equal treatment, but has opened up newer avenues for discrimination instead. The study proposes to accomplish this by providing an insight into the manner in which differential citizenship has become the reason for denial of performative citizenship to the dalits in rural and urban public spaces. Some of the key questions that the study addresses are: How is the performativity of differential citizenship in the public spaces foregrounded by the dalits? Why does this foregrounding evoke violent retribution from the upper caste? And does the continued violation of the imposition of dalit citizenship point to the dysfunctionality of the differential citizenship status accorded to the dalits?     

Syrian refugees in Turkey: pathways to precarity,differential inclusion,and negotiated citizenship rights

This article addresses the question of how to understand the relation among precarity, differential inclusion, and citizenship status with regard to Syrian refugees in Turkey. Turkey has become host to over 2.7 million Syrian refugees who live in government-run refugee camps and urban centres. Drawing on critical citizenship and migration studies literature, the paper emphasises the Turkish government’s central legal and policy frameworks that provide Syrians with some citizenship rights while simultaneously regulating their status and situating them in a position of limbo. Syrians are not only making claims to citizenship rights but they are also negotiating their access to social services, humanitarian assistance, and employment in different ways. The analysis stresses that Syrian refugees in Turkey continue to be part of the multiple pathways to precarity, differential inclusion, and negotiated citizenship rights.     

民族区域自治地方法律变通的价值蕴涵

民族自治地方可以依照当地民族的政治、经济和文化特点,对法律和行政法规的规定作出变通规定,变通立法是民族自治地方自治权的重要表现形式。法律变通是对少数民族人权的特殊保护,是民族平等权的有效保障。法律变通能够巩固民族认同基础上的国家认同,有效推动政治发展,促进政治文明和法治建设,实现差异性的统一,促进社会和谐。     

澄清傣族早期历史研究中的一个讹误--"达光王国"真相还原

有学者根据傣族文献的记载认为,傣族在公元前5世纪时曾建立过一个地跨云南西部和缅甸的“达光王国”,并把“达光王国”写进了有关傣族历史的论著之中。本文作者根据其掌握的资料对“达光王国”进行了考证后指出,傣族文献中有关“达光王国”的记载,实际上是流传到傣族地区并被“傣化”后写进了傣族文献的一些缅甸史籍中关于缅甸历史上的“太公王国”的传说故事,不足为信。     

Rejected People in Bangladesh: If the Biharis Were Counted

This paper is an outcome of an empirical research conducted in Bangladesh. I argue in this paper that the Biharis in Bangladesh can constitute an effective human capital with their knowledge, ability, and experience. However, this prospective human capital is not counted in the national development of Bangladesh. The findings of the research demonstrate that under the Bangladesh citizenship law the Biharis are de jure citizens. Nevertheless, they are still de facto stateless, because their citizenship is ineffective. I conclude that the “political will” of the Government of Bangladesh can make a breakthrough to overcome all invisible barriers on the way of effective citizenship of the Biharis. This will lead to their transition from de facto stateless persons to effective citizens or human capital and ultimately, this will contribute to the development of Bangladesh.     

Law and Identity in Spatial Contests

Law has had a traditional reference to land, conceived as territory, in the notion of a jurisdiction, where the law of the land applies equally to all individuals. Recent critiques of this view have suggested that a plurality of laws may apply in particular places. How this spatial pluralism impacts on dominant views of law is considered through two instances in which law has interacted with competing conceptions of place and territory in relations between European and Indigenous Australians. Space, law and identity are seen to constitute each other in complex forms. Indigenous beliefs and practices challenge the claims to universality of Western conceptions of law and space deriving from Roman law and spatial practices.     

Social identity and environmental citizenship in multinational corporations: an exploratory investigation and future research directions

ABSTRACT

Adapting to a ‘green’ agenda requires active engagement of all relevant stakeholders such as societies, national, international and multinational corporations. Within organizations, leaders need to create a conducive organizational culture and identity to inculcate prosocial behaviours for becoming environmentally sensitive and responsible among employees through environmental citizenship. It can be argued that environmental citizenship among employees can enhance an organization’s environmental performance and impacts. Linking the notions and theories of social identity and environmental citizenship, this exploratory study examines the perceptions, attitudes and values of managers on engaging employees in green involvement. We also explore the organizational factors that were implemented across the workplace and its underpinning sustainable strategies for green engagement with an overarching research question: How can organizations promote green behaviour and identity among employees and engage them in meeting green targets for organizations? We employed a qualitative method by designing a focus group study. Our findings help us explore factors for promoting a social identity and environmental citizenship in business organizations and to understand speci?c methods that motivate green behaviours among employees, so that a culture and identity of being green becomes prominent and extends to the homes and wider society of employees.     

The Ethnic Minority Question and Rohingya Crisis in Contemporary Myanmar

The recent humanitarian Rohingya crisis has once again put Myanmar onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look into the ethnic minority question in contemporary Myanmar. The paper has a special focus on the Muslim Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in Myanmar today should not be viewed in isolation but should be seen as a part of a historical continuum. The British colonial policies of divide and rule, political leaders and their obsession with Buddhism in the post-independence period and xenophobic tendencies during the long years of the military junta have all collectively contributed to the very complex situation in which the country finds itself today when it comes to race relations. Meaningful democracy and economic development have been advocated as the way forward especially for the more peripheral parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence.     

西南边境跨国婚姻子女的国家认同——以广西大新县隘江村为例

西南边境地区跨国婚姻子女的国家认同具有一定的特殊性.在国家归属方面,他们认同自己是中国人,但也为自己的母亲难以加入中国籍而遗憾;在政治认同方面,他们比同龄人冷漠;在法律认同方面,他们也面临一些迷茫.对于西南边境跨国婚姻所生子女在国家认同过程中遇到的特殊情况,需要给予更多的关注和研究.     

Variations in Citizenship Profiling by Generational Status: Individual and Neighborhood Characteristics of Latina/os Questioned by Law Enforcement About Their Legal Status

Although racial profiling is widely studied, the related issue of citizenship profiling by law enforcement has received little scholarly attention. In this study we begin to address citizenship profiling, which may be highly salient in light of the increasing policing of immigration in the United States through Secure Communities and other federal, state and local efforts to localize the enforcement of immigration laws. Using a sample of 563 Latina/o adults residing in 46 neighborhoods in El Paso County, Texas, USA, we assess the impacts of a variety of individual and neighborhood characteristics on the likelihood of being questioned about citizenship status by law enforcement. Results using hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLMs) show that, at the individual-level, first-generation Latina/o immigrants and second-Latina/os are more likely to be questioned about citizenship status than third- and later-generation Latina/os. At the neighborhood-level, living in a neighborhood with a mid-level of Latina/o immigrant characteristics increased the probability of being questioned. The implications of these findings for citizenship profiling are discussed.     

Fluid adaptation of contested citizenship: second-generation migrant Turks in Germany and the United States

This paper explores belonging in the context of legal citizenship for second-generation Turkish immigrants in Berlin and in New York. Fluid adaptation refers to the discursive boundaries of immigrant identity articulations, the contextual and shifting adjustments immigrants make to their sense of belonging. Immigrant belonging, gauged by ‘encounters’ with bureaucracies and participatory expressions, is shaped in large part by the receiving state's legal framework and citizenship status. Belonging is complicated by racialization and exclusion, and affected by intersectionalities of immigrant experience. Limited citizenship models necessitate deployment of fluid and alternative membership models. Alternative forms of belonging underscore the power of the nation-state in delimiting belonging.