Debates on Migration and on the Concept of Citizenship

Britain has a long tradition of migration both of people leaving to make new lives in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and with other people coming in to Britain to leave persecution or to improve their lives. Partly the importance that the British public has given to the debates over migration derive from the fact that Britain is an island and has a different outlook on citizenship than other European countries such as France and Germany (Modood, 2005 p. 193). Immigrants have received mixed reactions, some have been welcomed, whilst others have suffered from xenophobia and racism (Young, 2003 p. 246). How such reactions have affected the debates over migration and the very concept of citizenship itself will be evaluated. As will be discussed below, the existence of racism and cultural diversity have added to the debates on migration due mainly to the impact of immigrants from the New Commonwealth, the former British colonies in Africa, the West Indies, and Asia. As will be discussed below the concept of citizenship alters the significance for debates on migrants, especially in terms of balancing the human rights of immigrants with social and economic obligations expected of them once they have settled in Britain. British governments have, since the 1960s, attempted to control immigration, whilst allowing immigrants the opportunity to acquire British citizenship. In recent years for various reasons the concept of citizenship has received a higher degree of public attention.

The significance of the concept of citizenship upon debates over migration can depend on how citizenship is defined and understood. People will regard citizenship as a concept that can have different levels of acceptance of cultural and ethnic diversity. Some countries are more reluctant than others are when it comes to granting citizenship rights to migrants that are not willing to integrate. For instance Belgium and France are less willing to grant citizenship than Britain (Blommaert and Verschueren, 1998 p. 111). Legally the concept of citizenship is quite a narrow one, a migrant becomes a citizen of their new state once they have met all the requirements to be declared naturalised, or to be issued with a passport or identity papers for that country. A citizen is therefore defined as ‘a member of a state or Commonwealth’ (Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 1996 p. 266).

Countries can make the right to citizenship open, or as restrictive as they like. The social, religious, ethnic and political influences upon migration and the concept of citizenship have varied from time to time and has depended on the scale of the origin of migrant movements into Britain. Earlier migration into Britain brought mainly white Europeans into the country who had similar cultural, political, social and religious outlook as the British population they integrated themselves into (Moran, 2005 p.49). This is not to say that they did not have problems with discrimination, or not having the same rights as British citizens, if they spoke or learnt English they would eventually integrate into British society. For instance, the many millions of Irish that migrated to Britain have mostly been accepted into British society. The Irish and other European migrants who came into the country did not radically diversify the culture, society, or religion of Britain. It was not always immediately obvious they were immigrants, often only their names would show that they had migrated to Britain (Coxall, Robins, & Leach, 2003 p. 20). Earlier migrants into Britain faced a mixed reaction, some people welcomed them whilst others were against them coming into the country through a mixture of xenophobia and the belief that they took employment away from British workers. Gaining British citizenship seemed to be something that migrants were proud to achieve, even if initially they did not enjoy the same social and economic advantages or standard of living that people who were born in Britain did. Immigrants were noticeable due to them having to live grouped together in poorer areas until they could make enough money to move into better jobs and housing in more prosperous areas. The non-white immigrants of the post-war period lived in working class areas mainly because that is where the low paid jobs they into Britain to do happened to be based (Kingdom, 2003 p. 198).