2021
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
3(1)
reactive ethnic and religious identities … and even encouraging religious
radicalisation. 31
Therefore, although the use of denationalisation remained limited in the
Canadian context, it did not prevent the association of the Bill with a specific
group of peoples, and not single outliers, as would be the case if the outliers were
white.
The fifth chapter by Patrick Sykes focuses on the United States and the United
Kingdom debates on denationalising ‘foreign fighters’ that have been sparked by
the rise of the Islamic State. Sykes focuses on how the concept of citizenship was
reconstructed through the debate in both states, especially its transformation to ‘a
privileged status’. 32 Both countries discussed amendments to their
denationalisation laws in 2014, with amendments being blocked in the US and the
UK’s Immigration Act being amended. 33 Citizenship can be understood as
‘conduct’ or as ‘connection’, according to Sykes. It is through these two lenses
that he analyses the debates in both countries. Connection refers to
‘conceptualisations that present citizenship as constituting a particular relationship
between the citizen and the state’. 34 Citizenship as conduct views it as a privilege,
rather than a right: ‘it extends the familiar expectation of loyalty to the state
(usually only violated through treason or service with a foreign military), and
makes citizenship more broadly conditional on good behaviour’. 35 Therefore, not
everyone is entitled to citizenship, nor the connection that evolves from it, so goes
the argument. 36 Consequently, the debates in both countries show that
‘[c]itizenship is still conceived of as a body of individual rights, but they are
conditional on loyalty to the state’, 37 leaving states to ‘selectively exclud[e]
particular ‘undesirable’ groups — terror suspects, naturalised citizens’. 38
In the sixth chapter, the issue of denationalisation through fraud, which may
not be on the radar for most, is addressed by Fargues. They focus on the ‘moral
economy’, which analyses ‘norms and emotions behind the decision-making
process’ of officials and judges in the context of fraud-based denationalisation. 39
This is used to explain ‘how the selection between “desirable” and “undesirable”
citizen is made and how citizenship functions as a mechanism of exclusive
inclusion’. 40 Fargues identifies key similarities and differences in the UK’s and
France’s approaches. While in the UK those denationalised are deported, those in
France are usually allowed to stay on French territory. 41 French courts’ ability to
interfere in processes of denationalisation is greater than in the UK. Connected to
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
ibid 56.
Patrick Sykes, ‘Denaturalisation and Conceptions of Citizenship in the “War on Terror” in
Émilien Fargues, Elke Winter and Matthew J Gibney (eds), When States Take Rights Back:
Citizenship Revocation and its Discontents (Routledge 2020) 62.
See Immigration Act 2014 (United Kingdom) (no longer in force). It has since been
superseded by the Immigration Act 2016 (United Kingdom).
ibid 69.
ibid 67.
ibid 67.
ibid 72.
ibid.
Émilien Fargues, ‘Simply a Matter of Compliance with the Rules? The Moralising and
Responsibilising Function of Fraud-Based Citizenship Deprivation in France and the UK’ in
Émilien Fargues, Elke Winter and Matthew J Gibney (eds), When States Take Rights Back:
Citizenship Revocation and its Discontents (Routledge 2020) 77, 79.
ibid 79.
ibid 84.
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