37 Myanmar’s Three Levels of Citizenship Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law provides for the following three categories of citizenship: Citizen: Members of the eight national ethnic groups specified in the 1982 Citizenship Law and members of ethnic groups recognized by the Myanmar government and who settled in Myanmar’s territory before 1823 are citizens under the 1982 Citizenship Law.43 Since at least 1989, the Government of Myanmar has recognized 135 national ethnic groups—and the list does not include Rohingya.44 Under the law, persons who were citizens on the date the law entered into force continued to be citizens.45 The law also specified how the children of citizens may acquire full citizenship by descent if their parents are either citizens or if they are one of two specific combinations of categories of citizenship.46 Associate Citizen: Those who applied for citizenship under the Union Citizenship Act, 1948 but did not receive a decision before the enactment of the 1982 Citizenship Law and do not belong to one of the “national ethnic groups” are eligible to apply for associate citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law.47 “Associates” are provided the rights of full citizens but “with the exception of the rights stipulated from time to time by the Council of State.”48 Naturalized Citizen: Persons with “conclusive evidence” that they entered and resided in Myanmar prior to January 4, 1948, or have at least one parent with some form of citizenship, may apply for naturalized citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law.49 Applicants must also be at least 18, able to “speak well” one of the “national 43 Burma Citizenship Law, arts. 3, 4. The eight ethnic groups comprise Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine, and Shan. The 1982 Citizenship Law does not use the term “full citizen,” instead referring only to “citizens.” However, this class of citizenship is often referred to as “full citizen” to distinguish it from the other two classes of citizenship. This report uses “full citizen” to refer to the class of citizenship referred to as “citizen” in the 1982 Citizenship Law. 44 At a press conference on July 5, 1989, Myanmar military junta chairperson General Saw Maung “made a passing reference to the 135 national-race groups”; however, “it was not until the following year that the junta began referring to the number routinely.” In 2013, Myanmar’s Deputy Minister for Immigration and National Registration referenced the September 26, 1990 edition of the Working People’s Daily, asserting that the 1983 national census used a list of 135 ethnic groups; however, “the advice and data from which the number was derived remain obscure.” Moreover, a government publication from 1945 listed a total of “about 160” ethnic groups. Cheesman, “How in Myanmar ‘National Races’ Came to Surpass Citizenship and Exclude Rohingya,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, pp. 461-483. The government reportedly produced the first official list of 135 ethnic groups just prior to the 2014 census, and “[e]thnic lines are blurred in nearly all the classifications” on the list. Bertil Lintner, “A Question of Race in Myanmar,” Asia Times. 45 Burma Citizenship Law, Art. 6. 46 Burma Citizenship Law, Art. 7. The combinations can be summarized as follows: “(i) children acquire citizenship if one parent is a citizen and the other parent either a citizen, associate citizen or naturalised citizen; or (ii) children acquire citizenship if their parents are associate or naturalised citizens, provided that at least one set of grandparents are also associate or naturalised citizens – which means the second generation of offspring of people with these other forms of citizenship become full citizens by descent.” International Crisis Group, “Myanmar: The Politics of Rakhine State,” October 22, 2014, https:// d2071andvip0wj.cloudfront.net/myanmar-the-politics-of-rakhine-state.pdf (accessed on August 22, 2019). 47 Burma Citizenship Law, Ch. 3. 48 Burma Citizenship Law, Art. 30. 49 According to Articles 42 to 44 of the 1982 Citizenship Law, the qualifications entail: “42) Persons who