3 Analysis from the East-West Center that social exclusion turned into the modern legalpolitical form of “statelessness.” Today, the legal frameworks on nationality in the region are shaped by a prevalence of modes of attribution and acquisition of nationality that depend on the nationality of one or both parents (known legally as jus sanguinis). Single nationality remains the norm, with some exceptions.9 Many situations of statelessness have their roots in discriminatory regimes or practices which exclude certain groups from the citizenry Discriminatory policies and practices. Many situations of statelessness have their roots in discriminatory regimes or practices which exclude certain groups from the citizenry. It is no coincidence that 75 percent of the known stateless populations worldwide belong to minorities.10 The majority of stateless populations in Southeast Asia are minorities who live in the country in which they were born. Examples of such in situ statelessness are the Rohingya in Myanmar, so-called Hill Tribes in Thailand, certain Vietnamese minority populations in Cambodia, or former Chinese immigrants in Brunei. The discriminatory provisions in Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law are just the most obvious example of many in the region.11 In other contexts, laws may be well drafted but their application has consistently shown discriminatory patterns. An example are the difficulties faced by stateless Vietnamese populations in Cambodia in accessing birth registration, not to mention nationality.12 Gender-discriminatory nationality laws. A specific form of discrimination are laws that do not afford equal nationality rights for men and women.13 Brunei and Malaysia are among the countries in the region that still apply gendered nationality laws. Under the nationality law of Brunei, only fathers are allowed to confer nationality on their children. Such provisions have particularly affected children born of mixed marriages or those born outside the territory of their state. Similarly, some states have only limited safeguards against statelessness for children born out of wedlock. Deficiencies in civil registration systems. Weak civil registration systems, including birth registration, are another factor contributing to statelessness or lack of proof of legal identity.14 Shortcomings in civil registration expose children to risks of statelessness because they leave them without proof of parentage or birth in a country, all of which constitute vital facts for claiming nationality. The rates of birth registration vary greatly across the region, ranging in 2014 from 62 percent in Cambodia and 67 percent in Indonesia to 96 percent in Vietnam and 99 percent in Thailand.15 Common barriers to registration include lack of awareness, inaccessibility of registration systems, or corruption. Such problems particularly affect minorities and remote communities, as well as migrant or refugee populations, highlighting the intersectional nature of legal identity challenges. Cross-border mobility. Southeast Asia is a region with rising cross-border labor migration. It contains both countries of origin (e.g., Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia) and destination countries (e.g., Singapore and Brunei), as well as countries of both origin and destination (e.g., Thailand and Malaysia). Irregular migration outside regulatory norms has formed around 40 percent of the total size of migration.16 Human trafficking has also been a factor in cross-border mobility.17 Distinctions between migrant categories, such as labor migrants, refugees, or trafficking victims, may become blurred. Prominent examples of such mixed migration movements prompted by a multiplicity of factors occur from Myanmar into Thailand, or from the Philippines and Indonesia into Sabah, Malaysia. A lack of legal protection, restrictive immigration regimes, limited rights for temporary workers, and low registration rates among migrants often create conditions where children grow up without proof of legal identity, putting them at risk of statelessness.18 Historical or present mobile lifestyles. Other legal identity problems associated with mobility concern populations who have lived historically mobile lifestyles. Marine mobile populations or “sea nomads” in the region include the Moken of the Andaman Sea of Myanmar and Thailand, and the Bajau Laut of the Sulu Sea. State-based nationality laws and registrations systems grounded in a