documents such as birth certificate that provides proof of where a person is born and parentage, which are the key information needed to establish nationality, can place them at risk of statelessness.  1.2 Persons of undetermined nationality These are individuals who lack proof of possessions of any nationality. They either have links to more than one state (on the basis of birth, decent, marriage or habitual residence) or are perceived and treated by authorities in the state of residence as possessing such links to other states. Historical Background of Citizenship Development in Malaysia Prior to obtaining independence from the British in 1957, the Malaysian citizenship provisions underwent multiple and complicated stages of development towards the process of formation of a multi-ethnic nation. Choo Chin Low in a report entitled Report on Citizenship Law: Malaysia and Singapore4 identified five phases of citizenship development in Malaysia which is in line with its constitutional developments i.e.: pre-war Malaya, post-1946 following the establishment of the Malayan union, post-1948 following the establishment of the Federation of Malaya, post-1957 following the achievement of Independence and post1963 after the formation of Malaysia. The British open-door policy in the beginning of the 19th century resulted in the arrival of Chinese and Indian labourers to toil in the rubber and tin mining industries in Malaya. By 1947, the number of the immigrant population rapidly increased and constituted 50.2% of the total population of Malaya. The British’s attempt to grant jus soli5 for all locally born immigrant children through the liberal Malayan Union citizenship was strongly opposed by the Malay community, which resulted in the subsequent abolishment of the Malayan Union scheme. On 1st February 1948, the Federation of Malaya was formed, and double jus soli replaced the birthright citizenship whereby second generations of immigrants were granted automatic federal citizenship if both of their parents were born and had resided in the Federation for a continuous period of at least fifteen years. Subsequently, following a constitutional amendment in September 1952 as part of the government’s campaign against the communist insurrection, the double jus soli was replaced with delayed jus soli whereby local-born children became subjects of Malay ruler if one of their parents was born in the Federation of Malaya. These developments, however, had no implication on the Malays and aborigines born in the Federation of Malaya, who were continued to be granted jus soli citizenship. The concession of the jus soli citizenship to the non-Malays only took place on the eve of independence as it was deemed crucial in merging the multi-ethnic community into Malayan citizen for the Malayan nation-building purpose. This was granted in return for the institutionalization of affirmative citizen rights (special rights) for the Malays and aborigines 4 Chin Low, C. (2017). Report on Citizenship Law: Malaysia and Singapore. [online] Fiesole, Italy: European University Institute. Available at: https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/45371/GLOBALCIT_CR_2017_03.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Accessed 18 Nov. 2019]. 5 According to the principle of Jus soli, which means the law of soil in Latin, citizenship of a person is determined by his birth place. DHRRA Malaysia Page 5 of 29