Modernization has had major influences on two sources of identity in Southeast Asia — citizenship and ethnicity. Although ethnic groupings precede citizenship as a source of identity, the birth of the nation-state has linked both of them together with different consequences. This chapter is not a comprehensive discussion of the development and specificities of citizenship and ethnicity but, instead, seeks to highlight the main challenges faced by these two communities brought about by the reduction of distance and permeation of boundaries in the age of globalization. Two particular issues are addressed here: firstly, the ways in which these communities and identities are challenged by globalization, and secondly, how they are responding.

CITIZENSHIP: RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND BELONGING

Citizenship is fundamentally a European invention and is generally underpinned by two principles. Firstly, citizenship entitles one to uniform national rights, an idea alien to pre- modern societies where slaves and serfs enjoyed no such privilege. British sociologist T.H. Marshall defined three basic rights of citizenship. “Civil rights” protect the rights of the individual to free speech and faith, ownership of property, and justice. “Political rights” are concerned with the right to direct or indirect political participation, while “social rights” entitle the citizen to economic welfare, security, and acceptable standards of living. This has been described as a liberal individualist notion of citizenship as defined under the welfare state.

Secondly, citizenship binds one to a social contract with the state where, in return for the protection of rights, one is expected to fulfil certain duties such as the paying of taxes, obeying the laws of the land, or conscription. This has been described as a civic republican notion of citizenship where the emphasis of citizenship is not on individual rights, but on a shared commitment to a common endeavour for the collective good of society. The emphasis of either principle varies from society to society.