CITIZENSHIP: FROM RIGHT TO PRIVILEGE A background paper on the history of citizenshipstripping powers Contents Preface 2 Introduction 3 1. The ‘Clause 9’ furore 4 2. A history of deprivation powers 6 3. A lesser citizenship: embedding discrimination 10 4. Muslims as suspects 14 5. Shamima Begum: the construction of a hate figure 17 6. The context: retreating from equality 19 Further reading 21 Preface The whole history of British citizenship is a history of state racism – from the differential treatment of ‘non-patrial’ citizens who acquired citizenship through a colony rather than through British ancestry, which led to the ‘East African Asians’ scandal of 1968, and the quiet withdrawal of British citizenship from former colonial citizens when their countries became independent, which led to the Windrush scandal, through the dilution of the right of citizenship by birth in the UK (ius soli) in 1981, to the current laws which apply the logic of deportation and exclusion to black and brown citizens. Likewise, law and practice surrounding British nationality and its removal has been shaped by racism. British citizens are divided into those claiming only British citizenship, who can never lose it whatever they do, and those who, although they may have been born here, have access to another citizenship, who can lose their British citizenship on the say-so of a minister. The latter group, with a second-class, disposable, contingent citizenship, are 2