ARISTOTLE famously called humans “political animals” for our natural tendency to live in political communities like cities or states.

In ancient Greece, being a citizen was a privilege for a selective group. In the Middle Ages, the Greek concept of citizenship was replaced by the system of feudal rights and obligations. In the late Middle Ages, citizenship became a social contract between the subject and his sovereign.

Now, common policies of citizenship are based on the principle “citizenship is a privilege, not a right”.

But to some, citizenship is neither a privilege nor a right – rather a legal status. For others, it is both a privilege and a right. Yet for others, citizenship, in contrast to the age-old principle of inalienable human rights, is a “conditional” right and it should thus, in principle, be revocable.

This conditional right is mostly applicable to naturalised citizens or popularly known as ‘immigrant’ citizens who might become a threat to national security or harmony. Theoretically, a conditional right is not applicable to one whose past record of citizenship is not traceable.

In most countries, becoming a naturalised citizen is not easy. Many countries offer permanent residentship. The process leads many migrants to remain stuck in an immigration purgatory to become a permanent resident, let alone a citizen.

That often raises the question: are immigrants human? In their anatomy and physiology, immigrants are no less than humans. Yet, as residents in their new homes, their rights are not on a par with those with citizenship.

An immigrant remains as a “sub-citizen” even after becoming a permanent resident or serving a nation for 20 years or more as a taxpayer, as if immigrants are meant to deserve less.

Briefly, that tells the life of many immigrants in many countries.

As an immigrant employee, in one way or another, they seem to have less privilege than citizens for the same job. Permanent residents are practically ineligible for any permanent position, hence are deprived of retirement benefits. Policies to support healthcare and migrant children’s education have additional clauses. There are often restrictions on immigrants owning immovable property.

What is so wrong about offering citizenship to those contributing to nation-building?

If the country needs additional workforce and recruits immigrant workers, then why not facilitate those who have already been here for a long time?

The answer lies in the open secret: keeping an immigrant workforce is economically more “productive”, and some nations are “afraid” of losing their culture and heritage by naturalising a mixed population as citizens.

While the immigrant workforce gives the most valuable time and best efforts of their life in building a nation for a long time, where else would they go afterwards? Is it then too much to expect citizenship for long-term immigrant workers?

If citizenship is a privilege for long-term immigrant workers, then the government should rethink its rationale behind its policy to recruit immigrant workers and exploit them.

This becomes morally more problematic when a nation offers residentship or citizenship based on a golden visa or second home. In such cases, the legal status is given based on money invested by the immigrant. A million dollars seems to be more valuable than serving a decade as an immigrant.

No nation is obligated to take foreigners as their own citizens, but as long as that nation exploits the foreign workforce for its own benefit, it has the moral obligation to facilitate immigrants’ human rights.

Such an obligation is more crucial for any Muslim nation, simply because Mohammad (peace be upon him) lived his prophetic life as an “immigrant” in Medina, preached Islam from Medina as an “immigrant”, and died an “immigrant” in Medina.

If that obligation deems immigrants’ human rights, so be it, without red tape. – October 24, 2023.

* Prof Dr Mohammad Tariqur Rahman is Universiti Malaya Faculty of Dentistry associate dean for continuing education.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.