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Revision as of 01:59, 22 August 2006 by Mike18xx (talk | contribs) (rv. You know very well that that was not a "minor" edit.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Template:Legal status Second-class citizen is an informal term used to describe a person who is legally discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite being native-born or a legal resident. While not necessarily slaves, outlaws or criminals, second-class citizens have limited legal rights, civil rights and economic opportunities, and are often subject to mistreatment or neglect at the hands of their putative superiors.
Second-class citizenry is generally regarded as a violation of human rights. Typical impediments facing second-class citizens include disenfranchisement (a lack or loss of voting rights), limitations on civil or military service (not including conscription in every case), as well as restrictions on language, religion, caste, education, and freedom of movement and association.
Examples include:
- Non-slave native Americans and black people in many African and North- and South American nations up to approximately the mid-20th Century.
- The native black population of the former apartheid society of South Africa.
- Blacks in the People's Republic of China.
- Whites in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
- Native Indians under British India, and also outcastes in India prior to 1980.
- Burakumin in Japan.
- Jews, Roma (also called Gypsies), homosexuals and other "undesirables" in Nazi Germany.
- Women and non-Muslims in certain Islamic or Muslim-majority countries.
- Political dissidents and "class enemies" in communist nations.
- Iraq's Kurdish and Shia population under the rule of Saddam Hussein.
The term is generally used as a pejorative or in the context of civil society activism and governments will typically deny the existence of a second class within the polity, except in the cases of segregation in the United States, apartheid in South Africa, and the German Nazi rulers.
By contrast, a resident alien or foreign national may have limited rights within a jurisdiction (such as not being able to vote, and having to register with the government), but is also given the law's protection, and is usually accepted by the local population. A naturalized citizen carries essentially the same rights and responsibilities as a born citizen (a possible exception being ineligibility for certain public offices), and is also legally protected.
Notes
- "Racism in China", Shanghai Star, 2003-04-17 Racism in China]
- Misc. other sources
- "Crime or custom? Background, Human Rights Watch, retrieved August 16, 2006.
- Kent, Jonathan. "Malaysia women 'suffer apartheid'", BBC News, March 8, 2006, retrieved August 16, 2006.
- " Woman leads US Muslims to prayer", BBC News, March 18, 2005, retrieved August 16, 2006.
- Hughes, John. "Islamic women rise up, Christian Science Monitor, June 29, 2005, retrieved August 16, 2006.