FIGHTING IMAGINED INVASIONS WITH
ADMINISTRATIVE VIOLENCE: RACISM, XENOPHOBIA
AND NATIVISM AS A CAUSE OF STATELESSNESS IN
MYANMAR, THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND ASSAM
(INDIA)
JOSÉ-MARÍA ARRAIZA, * PHYU ZIN AYE ∗∗ AND MARINA ARRAIZA SHAKIROVA ‡
Discriminatory policies have the capacity to create statelessness on a massive scale and the
majority of stateless persons around the world belong to impoverished minority communities. The
intentionality of such discrimination is guided by xenophobia, racism and particularly nativism:
the belief that an internal minority with foreign connections is a threat to the nation. Hence, target
communities are re-imagined as an enemy invader. This article analyses and compares how such
ideologies have resulted in statelessness in the cases of Myanmar, the Dominican Republic and
the State of Assam in India. These three scenarios have internal minorities (Rohingya in Myanmar,
ethnic Haitians in Dominican Republic and Bengalis in India) that have been represented, based
on kinship lines with neighbouring states, as enemy intruders by public officials and institutions.
The authors compare how in the three scenarios nativist policies, the erosion of jus soli in
citizenship laws and administrative violence have been used to ‘fight’ these imagined invasions
and identify common trends.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
*
∗∗
‡
Introduction........................................................................................................... 196
Myanmar ............................................................................................................... 199
A Citizenship and Nativism in Myanmar ..................................................... 200
B Erosion of Jus Soli .................................................................................... 201
C Administrative Violence ........................................................................... 204
Dominican Republic ............................................................................................. 206
A Citizenship and Nativism in the Dominican Republic ............................. 207
B Erosion of Jus Soli .................................................................................... 208
C Administrative Violence ........................................................................... 209
Assam ................................................................................................................... 213
A Citizenship and Nativism in Assam and Wider India ............................... 213
B Erosion of Jus Soli .................................................................................... 214
C Administrative Violence ........................................................................... 217
Comparative Analysis ........................................................................................... 219
Concluding Observations ...................................................................................... 221
José María Arraiza is based in Madrid and holds a PhD from Åbo Akademi University. He is
a researcher on minority issues specialising in legal identity and land rights. He has worked
in the humanitarian field in research and peace-keeping since 1998, in conflict and postconflict contexts such as Kosovo, East Timor and Myanmar.
Phyu Zin Aye is a PhD student at Mahidol University, Thailand. She focuses on citizenship,
statelessness and refugees from a non-discrimination perspective. She also currently works at
OXFAM and has previously worked on statelessness, displacement and minority rights issues
with UNHCR and the Norwegian Refugee Council in Myanmar.
Marina Arraiza Shakirova is based in The Hague. She holds an LLM from Maastricht
University. She is a jurist researching citizenship and statelessness. In 2019, she received the
“Jaime Brunet” award from the Public University of Navarra on human rights and
development for her research on the situation of the Rohingya from a legal perspective.