BOOK REVIEW
CITIZENSHIP IN TIMES OF TURMOIL?: THEORY,
PRACTICE AND POLICY EDITED BY DEVYANI PRABHAT
(EDWIN ELGAR) 256 PAGES. PRICE £90.00 ISBN
9781788119207
DJORDJE SREDANOVIC ∗
Citizenship In Times Of Turmoil?: Theory, Practice and Policy, 1 edited by
Devyani Prabhat, offers an extensive survey of the legal and social issues linked
to citizenship in the United Kingdom, examining citizenship acquisition and loss
along with immigration control. The volume discusses the fragility of citizenship
when it is endangered by immigration control policies, a fragility highlighted
therein through the analysis of citizenship legislation alongside migration policy.
The issues explored range from gender inequality in UK citizenship, to the
Windrush scandal, Brexit, citizenship deprivation and the ‘Hostile Environment’
policy. 2 The contributing authors are a mix of academics and practitioners, and
most are in the field of law, but some come from sociology (Bridget Byrne) or
philosophy (Christopher Bertram). The volume brings together technical legal
analyses with case studies of those impacted by the law, and most chapters are
parsimonious in the use of academic references.
The volume is organised into three parts, ‘Making British Citizens’, 3 on the
transmission and acquisition of citizenship, ‘Holding British Citizenship and
Immigration Controls’, 4 on migration controls linked to the Hostile Environment
policies and ‘Losing British Citizenship and Immigration Controls’, 5 on different
forms of citizenship loss or non-recognition of citizenship. In the following pages
I group the discussion of individual chapters to make some of the themes more
explicit, and I deal in turn with citizenship transmission, citizenship acquisition,
citizenship loss and immigration controls.
∗
1
2
3
4
5
FNRS postdoctoral fellow, Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration & Equality,
Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Devyani Prabhat (ed), Citizenship in Times of Turmoil: Theory, Practice and Policy (Edward
Elgar 2019).
Immigration Act 2014 (UK); Immigration Act 2016 (UK). The provisions that constitute the
‘Hostile Environment Policy’ can be found in these Acts.
Prabhat (n 1) 2.
ibid 94.
ibid 134.