Second-class citizen
From LawGuru Wiki
A second-class citizen is a person who's a citizen of a state or other entity, yet is treated unequally and unfairly relative to other citizens for a variety of reasons. Such status may be de jure or de facto, and is generally regarded as a violation of human rights. Historical (and current) examples allegedly include
- African-Americans in the United States, especially before the civil rights movement
- Black South Africans under apartheid (althogh the government tried to make them non-citizens by establishing Bantustans, and then making them "citizens" of the Bantustans)
- Israeli Arabs in modern-day Israel
- Various native and aboriginal peoples in their homelands, which have been incorporated into larger states at which point such peoples become a minority
- Native Hong Kong people under British rule
- mestizo and native American people under Spanish rule in the Americas
- French citizens of African and/or Arab descent in modern-day France
As having second-class citizens is generally regarded as a violation of human rights, most states will deny that they have any, and the term tends to be pejorative. Second-class citizenship violates the principle of Equal Protection of the laws, and there are many groups which campaign against its existence.
