On the other hand, other studies adopt a conceptual approach towards
statelessness, most commonly via a legal approach, relying on secondary
data. Tamara J. Duraisingam and Harmahinder Singh Iqbal Singh (2020)
analyse the position of stateless persons using international law and
domestic law via the Federal Constitution by theorising the possible
inclusion of the right to livelihood for stateless persons through a liberal
interpretation of the right to life under Article 5 of the Constitution.
Low (2017) provides a historical background on the development of
citizenship law in Malaysia and Singapore, drawing heavily on how
each country’s citizenship regime is influenced by its former colonial
citizenship systems. It then details the current citizenship regime
in the respective countries, highlighting major trends on citizenship
amendments post-independence.
Firstly, there are conceptual legal studies focusing on the stateless Indian
community in Peninsular Malaysia, which is one of the most researched
stateless groups. The purely theoretical study conducted by Tamara J.
Duraisingam et. al. (2020a) focuses on whether the Rule of Law helps
mitigate the issues faced by stateless Malaysian Indians, primarily their
right to employment. In another study, Tamara J. Duraisingam et. al.
(2020b), also focusing on stateless Indians, use a doctrinal approach to
outline the historical factors that led to their statelessness, definitions
of a stateless Indian, and how they can be provided a right to citizenship
through an analysis of citizenship law and statelessness.
Secondly, there are studies that focus on the nexus between statelessness
and migration (e.g. refugees, irregular labour migrants, asylum seekers,
victims of human trafficking) via a legal framework. Rodziana Mohamed
Razali et. al. (2015) adopt an international law framework to explore
the interconnections between migration and statelessness, particularly
how modern patterns of migration expose several groups of vulnerable
persons with a migratory background to the risk of statelessness in
Malaysia. Zulfaqar Mamat and Rodziana Mohamed Razali (2020) find
that the unrecognised legal status of Rohingya refugees complicates
the registration of their marriages in Malaysia and argue that more
streamlined, detailed guidelines on marriages amongst Muslim refugees
should be developed so that their marriages can be better regulated, as a
means to preserve their rights according to Islamic law. Another doctrinal
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