Regional Report on Citizenship: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Morocco. Even in these countries, there is minimal jurisprudence on nationality cases.70 Although there has been a lot of discussion on this issue71 – no country in the Gulf has enacted procedural guarantees although deprivation of nationality is actively practiced in the sub-region. 3.3. Conclusion The analysis of nationality laws shows several things. The MENA region in general has several positive developments, notably the universal provision granting nationality to foundlings and the limited situations of lapse of nationality. There are also some points where opportunities exist for improvement, specifically removing discrimination and prohibitive criteria in the naturalisation requirements. Predominantly though, what these trends show that there is still some substantial discrimination in all laws and in many practices – especially on grounds of gender, religion, disability and ethnic identity. Furthermore, the criteria of deprivation of nationality also allow space for abusive power of discretion by authorities in virtually all of the nationality laws. 4. Final observations Countries in the Middle East and North Africa have common approaches to the regulation of acquisition and loss of citizenship and some of the patterns discussed in this paper show the region to be quite distinct when compared with other regions in the world. The laws we see today and the trends that were discussed in this report are largely influenced and formed by the unique circumstances of the last century – from the post-colonial legacy, to the creation of Israel, pan-Arabism, demographic manipulation and the influence of present-day conflicts and instability. Different patterns of migration – whether worldwide ingathering of a diaspora to create the state of Israel or the recruitment of labour migrants that has created the substantive non-citizen population in Qatar, or the increasing displacement of populations across the region – all these phenomena mean that there will continue to be discussions on the relationship between migration and citizenship regulation at the regional level. It is also important to note when reading this chapter that one of the underlying dynamics seen across all of the sections on the influences and developments in nationality legislations is the interest of those in power to sustain their position through the manipulation of the state’s demographic composition and the instrumental use of nationality policy to that end. 70 One of the best-known analyses of case law relating to nationality in Lebanon is Frontiers Ruwad Association, Invisible Citizens: Humiliation and a life in the shadows. A legal and policy study on statelessness in Lebanon, 2011. 71 For example, in Kuwait there has been much discussion for many years on whether the court should oversee nationality cases. Most recently a parliamentary decision that allowed courts to review nationality cases was overturned in 2017. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-Comp. 2017/3- © 2017 Author(s) 19