DOES CITIZENSHIP MATTER? AN EMPIRICAL LOOK AT THE BIHARIS IN BANGLADESH

Autor

  • Zaglul Hader Professor Department of Political Science, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v8i1.1376

Słowa kluczowe:

Bangladesh, Biharis, citizenship, de jure and de facto statelessness, human rights, integration

Abstrakt

I argue in this paper that legal, but in effective citizenship does not matter much, only effective citizenship matters. Effective citizenship can award an individual the “right to have rights.” Ineffective citizens do not have the “right to have rights” or they do not have access to many important rights associated with citizenship rights. They suffer from ineffective governance, and the State of their citizenship discriminates against them. My empirical findings show that the Biharis in Bangladesh are de jure citizens, but de facto stateless persons. In the strict legal sense, they are citizens of Bangladesh, but practically they still do not have access to many significant rights attached to the citizenship right that is essential to make their citizenship meaningful or effective. This paper suggests that to make them effective citizens of Bangladesh, the Government should extend equal rights and responsibilities to the Biharis like other citizens. Their ability to access all rights and duties attached to citizenship rights would make them effective citizens of the country, and their citizenship could be meaningful.

 

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Biogram autora

  • Zaglul Hader - Professor Department of Political Science, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

    Zaglul Haider (PhD) is a Political Scientist and a full Professor at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He was a Research Fellow at the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), York University, Toronto, Canada. The University Press Limited, Dhaka in 2006, published his book, The Changing pattern of Bangladesh Foreign Policy: A Comparative study of the Mujib and Zia Regimes. He published articles in Security Dialogue, Asian Survey, The Round Table, Asian and African Studies, African and Asian Studies, South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, South Asia Research, Regional Studies, Asian Profile, the Asiatic Society Journal, Journal of International Relations, and in some South Asian academic journals. Currently, he is working on a book manuscript entitled, Biharis in Bangladesh: Transition from Statelessness to citizenship. Professor Haider holds a PhD in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University, U.S.A. He also earned an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada.

    OrcidID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2307-6564;

    ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zaglul-Haider,

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaglul-haider-0361a275/?originalSubdomain=ca.

Pobrania

Opublikowane

2022-11-27

Numer

Tom 8 Nr 1 (2022)

Dział

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