The Redefinition of the Concept of Nationality in the UK: Between Historical Responsibility and Normative Challenges

DOI10.1111/1467-9256.00153
Date01 February 2002
Published date01 February 2002
Subject MatterArticle
The Redefinition of the Concept of Nationality in the UK: Between Historical Responsibility and Normative Challenges P O L I T I C S : 2 0 0 2 V O L 2 2 ( 1 ) , 9 – 1 6
The Redefinition of the Concept
of Nationality in the UK: Between
Historical Responsibility and
Normative Challenges

Fiorella Dell’Olio
University of Oxford
This article analyses the extent to which UK membership in the European Economic Community
(EEC) has influenced the redefinition of the concept of nationality in the United Kingdom and
the retreat from historical responsibility with respect to citizens of Commonwealth countries. After
first describing the rights that have most defined nationality in the United Kingdom prior to its
membership to the EEC, it is argued that the EEC has only indirectly influenced the redefinition
of UK nationality in three main respects: (a) from the early 1970s, the issue of nationality has
been a frequent subject of discussion in parliament; (b) at the same time, there was the need
to define nationality for EEC law purposes; and (c) the establishment of European citizenship
reinforced nationality not only because nationality represented a means by which to benefit from
additional rights, but also because it became a foundation for the construction of subsequent
immigration policy. The article suggests that the indirect effect of the EEC on the redefinition of
nationality has also provided a legitimate means by which to reconsider the idea of citizenship
first in terms of exclusion and inclusion and secondly in terms of detachment from historical
responsibility.
Citizenship in the United Kingdom: an atypical case
The approach towards citizenship in the United Kingdom has always been peculiar.
The British model falls into the liberal-individualistic tradition in which citizenship
is reduced to a mere legal status. According to this theoretical tradition, rights are
inherent in the individual and the individual is free from hindrance by the state.
Society is governed by rules rather than any sense of a shared belief in the common
good (Lehning, 1997). At least until 1981 – when the 1981 British Nationality Act
(BNA) established radical changes in nationality law – British rights took precedence
over citizenship status. The right of residence conferred political rights rather than
citizenship, since rights were granted to any resident without the necessary condi-
tion of being a citizen. In other words, the rights held by an individual determined
his/her status.1 This peculiarity has distinguished British practices from those of other
members of the European Union (EU)2 in granting citizenship rights. From 1962 to
1981, the right to enter the United Kingdom was not based on citizenship and, para-
doxically, not all British citizens were free from immigration control (Hansen, 2000,
p. 29). Before 1981, British citizenship itself did not denote any specific right, and
the status of citizen and that of membership were in fact quite close.
The vast literature on the history of British nationality stresses the lack of a central
character in its definition of citizenship (Dummett and Nicol, 1990; Hobsbawm and
© Political Studies Association, 2002.
Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA


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F I O R E L L A D E L L’ O L I O
Ranger, 1983; Holmes, 1978; Jones, 1956; Parry, 1957). Ann Dummett and Andrew
Nicol argued that the absence of a written constitution or basic law that enumer-
ates rights and duties leads to what they call British constitutional formalism, in
which the national identity has been shaped by laws and policies on entry into the
United Kingdom (Dummett and Nicol, 1990). This theory implies that British
nationality became established on the basis of immigration. The 1948 BNA and
the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act created a ‘legal anomaly’ by placing
citizenship and immigration under an indistinct legal regime (Hansen, 2000, p.
207). Because of its historical responsibility or commitments towards Common-
wealth countries, the United Kingdom has been in some respects more generous
than other European countries in granting rights to some non-citizens. From
1948 to 1962, Britain operated one of the most liberal immigration regimes in
the world, granting citizenship to millions of colonial subjects, as part of a policy
aimed to support ‘the ties between Britain and the Old Dominions’ (ibid., pp.
16–19). An important factor, however, is missing in this analysis. It was the lack
of a con-stitutional definition of citizenship that permitted a more flexible redefi-
nition of nationality and immigration as stated in the 1948 BNA and the 1962
Commonwealth Immigrants Act. This point is further substantiated by the fact
that as soon as British citizenship was established in 1981, the United Kingdom
started to converge with the rest of Europe in combining relatively easy access
to nationality – through naturalisation – with firmer immigration control (ibid.,
p. 207).
Before 1981, immigration laws effectively defined the status of citizenship and
deprived the United Kingdom of an exclusive citizenship mechanism of the sort
that characterised other European countries. The 1981 BNA was designed to
reverse this mechanism by basing immigration upon a clear definition of citizen-
ship and nationality. The intention was to dissociate citizenship from immigration,
but the new legislation actually made their relationship stronger, especially in the
context of surging Commonwealth immigration and membership to the EEC. All
this meant that immigration law needed to be tightened in order to meet not only
domestic necessity but also EEC...

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