Internal passport

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An internal or domestic passport is a type of identity document issued in a passport-like booklet format. Internal passports may have a variety of uses including:

1. An ordinary identity document produced in a passport format (such as the modern Russian internal passport)
2. Recording the residence and place of employment of citizens for civil registration purposes (such as the Chinese hukou)
3. Management and restriction of internal migration (as in the Soviet Union)
4. Recording demographic information such as ethnicity and citizenship and immigration status, sometimes related to structural discrimination (such as the pass books in Apartheid South Africa)
5. Controlling access to closed cities and other sensitive locations

When passports first emerged, there was no clear distinction between internal and international ones. Later, some countries developed sophisticated systems of passports for various purposes and various groups of population.^{[weasel words]}