JOURNAL OF ETHNIC AND MIGRATION STUDIES 4789 Theoretical perspectives The focus on South and Southeast Asia demonstrates remarkable and disconcerting alignments among the countries in the region, particularly India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Governments strategically wield violence, discriminatory policies and legal frameworks to target vulnerable minority groups, deliberately undermining their citizenship status. These actions have plunged communities into the abyss of statelessness, displacement and persistent marginalisation. While scholars have analysed what we call the ‘mutual attrition’ of citizenship, law and democracy in contexts of these individual countries, this special issue extends this conversation by making it comparative. The contributions collectively excavate the intersecting patterns of this mutual attrition, respecting their granularity and context, while also speaking to wider global concerns. They explore the entwined historical trajectories revealing the exploitation of ethnic divisions by right-wing political forces, using nationalism as a tool to manipulate citizenship laws, and advancing exclusionary agendas. The intricate tapestry of Assam (India), Myanmar and Sri Lanka is interwoven with historical complexities, shaped by migration patterns, colonial legacies and enduring ethno-political tensions. Undoubtedly, the most dramatic instance is that of Myanmar. Myanmar’s historical narrative unveils a systematic persecution of the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority residing primarily in Rakhine State. Rooted in historical prejudice, the 1982 Citizenship Law deliberately excluded the Rohingya, denying them citizenship and effectively rendering them stateless. A culmination of targeted violence, notably the military crackdown in 2017, exacerbated an extensive refugee crisis. This brutal crackdown led to an exodus of Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring countries, facing precariousness and statelessness due to the deliberate erosion of their citizenship rights. Sri Lanka’s historical landscape is marked by deep-rooted ethnic tensions, predominantly between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. The Citizenship Acts of 1948 and 1949 stripped Indian Tamils of their citizenship, displacing them and rendering a significant population stateless. The protracted civil war further marginalised Tamil communities, subjecting them to severe human rights abuses and displacement, exacerbating their citizenship struggles. In many respects, the context in India, especially its eastern state of Assam, continues to reflect many of these dynamics. Assam, a region in north-eastern India, has grappled with a turbulent past, catalysed by colonial demographic changes and post-independence ethnic tensions. The Assam Agitation, a pivotal movement between 1979 and 1985, witnessed widespread protests calling for the identification and expulsion of purported undocumented immigrants, notably those from Bangladesh. This movement, under the guise of protecting Assamese identity, strategically targeted the so-called Bengali-speaking Muslims, also known as the Miya community. The agitation’s underlying narrative questioned their citizenship based on residency claims, rendering numerous individuals vulnerable to statelessness and exclusion. Even in its brevity, this summary indicates how these countries share crosscutting dynamics – racialisation, undermining of citizenship status, outright citizenship stripping, anti-minority violence and displacement – that the contributions here explore in detail. The academic virtues of these assessments of cross-border, regional and neighbourhood effects are obvious. The historical depth adopted by the contributors