Chapter 5

Each country has its own citizenship law to determine who is and who is not a legal citizen. This chapter looks at different principles and concepts related to legal citizenship, how legal citizenship is determined under the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, and what citizenship, residency and identity documents are available for people living in Myanmar. It also examines different barriers to legal citizenship status in Myanmar, how legal citizenship was defined in past laws, and the relationship between legal citizenship and statelessness.