From persons of Indonesian Descent (PIDs) to Registered Indonesian Nationals (RINs): The legalisation process and issues of the RINs in Mindanao, Philippines

Abstract

This paper examines the legalisation process and rights of Persons of Indonesian Descent (PIDs) residing in Mindanao, Philippines after receiving nationality from the Indonesian government. The PIDs in Mindanao were considered as stateless due to the unavailability of legal documents to prove their nationality. Many of the ancestors of the PIDs originated from the province of North Sulawesi and migrated during the colonial era when official travel documents were not made available in Indonesia yet. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Indonesian and the Philippines governments arranged for a pilot project to award the PIDs with Indonesian nationality to prevent them for being stateless. After the legalisation process, 2,435 Registered Indonesian Nationals (RINs) chose to remain in Mindanao instead of returning to Indonesia. Although the legalisation process is a positive move for the Indonesian government to bestow legal identity on the PIDs and address the issue of statelessness, it does not fully resolve the concerns of the RINs. This study employs the notion of push and pull factors to discover the causes of the issues faced by the RINs who had chosen to remain in Mindanao upon receiving their citizenship. Based on a qualitative method and analyses from interviews and survey with the RINs, this paper argues that while they are no longer stateless and could therefore live a more secured life, they are still at risk of becoming illegal immigrants and be deported if caught due to financial constraints in maintaining the validity of their legal documents. Keywords: Legalisation, Persons of Indonesian Descents, Registered Indonesian Nationals, Statelessness, Stateless Person, UNHCR