Elizabeth Rhoads
Senior lecturer
The Specter of Potential Foreigners : Revisiting the Postcolonial Citizenship Regimes of Myanmar and India
Author
Summary, in English
Revisiting the citizenship regimes of Myanmar and India through a comparative lens, this article argues that a specter of the “potential foreigner” is decisive in the adjudication of citizenship in both countries. Citizenship is conceptualized not only on the basis of who is a citizen, but a perennial suspicion towards those who may not be. We frame this argument in the context of increasingly restrictive atmospheres in both countries, epitomized by violence towards the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India. This paper employs an historical perspective, tracing the evolution of citizenship since the partitions of Burma and Pakistan from India. It interrogates the very notion of foreignness that is embedded in these discourses, through a detailed description of the religious, ethnic, racial, and administrative "other" etched in the legislative and socio-political fabric of both countries. In order to develop the idea of potential foreigner as a key element of national identity and citizenship policy, the paper examines crucial legislation over the last three-quarters of a century, and the consequences of linking narrowing definitions of ethno-national belonging to citizenship status.
Department/s
- Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
- LU Profile Area: Human rights
Publishing year
2024-04-25
Language
English
Publication/Series
Critical Asian Studies
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Routledge
Topic
- International Migration and Ethnic Relations
Keywords
- potential foreigner
- postcolonial citizenship
- Myanmar
- India
- partition
Status
Epub
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1467-2715