Caroline Sawyer, Helena Wray
British citizens, usually from a visible ethnic minority, through deprivation of
citizenship and exclusion orders. There is also the inglorious expulsion of the Chagos
Islanders from their homes in the British Indian Ocean Territory (discussed in 3.5
below and attempts to expel the parents of citizen children even when this means the
exile of the child, partially checked by the Supreme Court in ZH (Tanzania) v SSHD
[2011] UKSC 4 (discussed below).
2.3 Establishment of ius soli
The earliest confirmation of ius soli is Calvin’s Case, decided in 1608 just after King
James VI of Scotland’s became also King James I of England.18 It was found that a
person born in Scotland after the Union of the two countries was a subject of the King
of England (and therefore entitled to hold land in England). Ius soli continued to
thrive in a country embarking on a strong imperialist phase, gathering in territories
and their peoples. It was not until the later twentieth century that Britain preferred to
shed people as it shed territories, and the process is not yet completed. Britain has also
always been a country of emigration as well as transit. Many families leaving central
and Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century ended up staying permanently in the UK
although they had intended to use it only as a transit to America. In the late twentieth
century, the similar phenomenon of apparent transit passengers disembarking at, for
example, Heathrow to claim asylum led to the instigation of transit visas, which are
now routine. Emigration however has never excited legislative concern other than as
to the money that people might take with them; exchange controls are within living
memory.
Common law ius soli was first codified in the British Nationality and Status of
Aliens Act 1914, which was passed along with the Aliens Restriction Act 1914 of the
same year, as a response to the outbreak of the First World War.19 After the Second
World War, and as decolonisation accelerated, nationality legislation was codified in
the British Nationality Act 1948. Under the 1948 Act, British people were designated
‘Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies’, also known as ‘CUKCs’, the first use
of citizen as the primary status, while citizens of independent states were known as
Commonwealth citizens. Previously, ‘British subject’ had been the main status; it
was retained in the 1948 Act along for both CUKCs and Commonwealth citizens.
Subjecthood carried rights of movement throughout the Commonwealth but, as these
rights were progressively diminished through consecutive immigration statutes, its
significance dwindled. After the BNA 1981, it denoted the lowest level of connection,
describing a person with no citizenship or right of abode.
2.4 Nationality, race and citizenship
After the Second World War, race and immigration control became more explicitly
intertwined in the UK. Extra labour was needed for post-war rebuilding, particularly
in sectors such as health, hospitality, transport and manufacturing. There was a
preference for European labour whose stay as aliens could be controlled and, in
principle anyway, made temporary. In the event, however, major employers recruited
labour from the Commonwealth, initially the Caribbean then South Asia. There was
much official disquiet, public concern and even conflict but there was also hesitation
in legislating; there was no desire to prevent the entry of white Commonwealth
citizens, to disrupt Commonwealth links or to impose an obvious race bar. (Dummett
& Nicol 1990: 177 ff; Paul 1997: chapters 5 and 6; Hansen 2000; chapters 3 and
4). Finally, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 was passed, imposing controls
18
7 Coke Report 1a, 77 ER 377.
19
Sect.1 (1) provided that ‘… any person born within His Majesty’s dominions and allegiance …’ was
a ‘natural-born British subject’.
8
RSCAS/EUDO-CIT-CR 2014/1 - © 2014 Authors
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents