2019
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
1(1)
marriage migrants require access to secondary or tertiary education, or in relation
to employment and military service. Research undertaken by the World Bank
suggests that children with temporary registration are ‘less likely to be enrolled in
school at the lower and upper secondary levels’, and to have greater difficulty in
accessing the public health system and other government services. 93 These
concerns apply particularly to the returned children in Category 2 who have a
foreign nationality.
B
Nationality and Identity
In our view Vietnam’s progressive approach to nationality (and statelessness)
offers evidence of the ability to adapt to new challenges — including marriage
migration and the situation of children of returned marriage migrants.
The current Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (‘The
Constitution’) 94 and nationality laws 95 of Vietnam reflect socialist values, 96 an
‘ethnic understanding of nationality’ 97 and emphasise the importance of the
diaspora to the Vietnamese national identity. 98 In this way, the existing legal
framework in Vietnam bears out the complexities of Vietnam’s colonial and postwar history, as well as the impact of several periods of mass emigration —
including the ‘mass exodus’ that occurred in the aftermath of the second Indochina
conflict (1954–75). 99 Relevantly, the current ‘outward-looking’ approach that is
broadly inclusive of the rights of so-called ‘overseas Vietnamese’, being
Vietnamese citizens and persons of Vietnamese origin who permanently reside in
a foreign country, 100 is relatively recent.
Vietnam has had five constitutions since 1946 101 which have progressively
modified the focus on socialist principles under which ‘rights are circumscribed
by the State’s interests’ 102 and the ‘inseparability of citizens’ rights and their duty
to state and society’. 103 Whilst this ‘regulatory and statist-rights regime’ 104
remains ‘hegemonic’ since the 1992 Constitution (the fourth, after the 1946, 1959
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
Vietnam’s Household Registration System (n 82) 25, 26–30.
13th National Assembly, 28 November 2013 (entry into force 1 January 2014) (‘The
Constitution’).
2008 Nationality Law (n 69).
The Constitution (n 94) arts 2, 4.
Kneebone, ‘Nationality and Identity in Regulation’ (n 5) 14, citing 2008 Nationality Law (n
69) art 5(1).
The Constitution (n 94) art 18; 2008 Nationality Law (n 69) art 7.
Koh (n 78) 174–9.
See 2008 Nationality Law (n 69) art 3(3); Kneebone, ‘Nationality and Identity in Regulation’
(n 5) 14.
Bui Ngoc Son, ‘The Global Origins of Vietnam’s Constitutions: Text in Context’ [2017](2)
University of Illinois Law Review 525, 528. See generally 1946 Constitution of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam, 1st National Assembly, adopted 9 November 1946; 1959 Constitution of
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 2nd National Assembly, adopted 1 January 1960; 1980
Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 6th National Assembly, adopted 18
December 1980; 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 8th National
Assembly, adopted 15 April 1992.
Son (n 101) 550.
ibid 551.
ibid 554.
88