Second-class citizen

A second-class citizen is a person who is systematically and actively discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite their nominal status as a citizen or a legal resident there. While not necessarily slaves, outlaws, illegal immigrants, or criminals, second-class citizens have significantly limited legal rights, civil rights and socioeconomic opportunities, and are often subject to mistreatment and exploitation at the hands of their putative superiors. Systems with de facto second-class citizenry are widely regarded as violating human rights. Typical conditions facing second-class citizens include but are not limited to: disenfranchisement (a lack or loss of voting rights) limitations on civil service and/or exclusion from military forces restrictions on language, religion, education lack of freedom of movement, expression, and association limitations on the right to keep and bear arms restrictions on marriage restrictions on housing restrictions on property ownership mandatory military service (conscription) Citizenship and nationality have essential imbued rights that define them, and some commentators argue that having second-class citizenship may amount to statelessness. As an example, Nazi Germany's Reich Citizenship Law of 1935 created a second-class citizenship status, which was used for anyone excluded from the "Reich Citizenship." On paper, the holders of the second-class citizenship "enjoyed the protection of the state and were bound to fulfill all the duties of citizenship," but in practice the status was worse than that for aliens, allowing any form of discrimination and other maltreatment against the holders, effectively nullifying the defining function of citizenship. There is much debate as to where to draw the line on defining second-class citizenship and whether it amounts to statelessness. The category remains unofficial and mostly academic, and is generally used as a pejorative by commentators. Governments will typically deny the existence of a second class within its polity, and as an informal category,...