Caroline Sawyer, Helena Wray nineteenth century to excluding even some people born in the territory of the UK itself. However, there has been reluctance to openly acknowledge the exclusionary implications of this withdrawal so that legal categories have not always reflected the paucity of rights to which they give effect. Within the overall category of ‘British nationality’, only the sub-category of ‘British citizen’ necessarily entails the right to live in the UK. The increasing scope for and use of deprivation of citizenship and new proposals to withdraw passports from those engaging in conflict outside the UK unless they submit to draconian in-country controls suggests that even this privileged status is now conditional and provisional and functions in ways previously associated with immigration control. Modern British citizenship stands in stark contrast to the previous inclusive conceptualisation founded only on birth in the territory of the British Empire. This shrinkage of citizenship has been accompanied by the establishment of an exceptionally complex system regulating immigration status. The question of status has become practically important as more and more aspects of day-to-day life are governed by proof of entitlement through status rather than, as before, through residence. The last two decades have seen a torrent of legislation redefining the respective rights of citizens and non-citizens that is still continuing.3 Part of this has been oriented towards preventing unwanted admissions but a major and new theme has been to control access to services by those without immigration status and this has implications for citizens. The UK has no system of personal identity documents apart from (voluntarily acquired) passports, driving licences etc. so it can be difficult to ascertain a person’s citizenship or immigration status.4 Nonetheless, employers and educational establishments must now check all employees’ entitlement to work or study and monitor aspects of compliance. The Immigration Act 2014 requires checks on immigration status or nationality by landlords, banks and the driving licence authorities (not all of these had been fully implemented at the time of writing). While these are classified as forms of immigration control, and long term migrants now carry biometric residence permits, citizens must also demonstrate their eligibility in ways that were not previously necessary, even if plans for identity cards for citizens have been abandoned. In addition, it is not easy to ascertain exactly what rights follow from which status nor even what that status may be.5 This may be a problem for noncitizens but also for citizens or those who had always believed themselves to be citizens; it is still possible that a non-British person may have greater rights (for example, as an EU citizen, a settled person or a Commonwealth citizen with the right of abode) to live in the UK than an overseas-based British national, who may have no right to enter the UK at all. It is also possible that an individual who was born or has lived since childhood in the UK may discover that they are not a citizen only when they try to obtain a passport or have to prove their entitlement for another reason. 3 Asylum and Immigration Appeals Act 1993; Asylum and Immigration Act 1996; Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002; Asylum (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004; Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006; Identity Cards Act 2006; UK Borders Act 2007; Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009. The cultural change in attitude to refugees and asylum seekers (the latter term being a contemporary new invention), who went from being heroes of their own lives to being “bogus” and outcasts is variously attributed to the arrival of non-Europeans in large numbers, or the end of the Cold War; it followed, however, rather than preceded the change in the attribution of citizenship to the children of foreign nationals. 4 Identity for formal working purposes such as the payment of tax and the attribution of social security contributions was assessed through the National Insurance Number system. It was very easy to obtain such a number, or several, or to use someone else’s, particularly until late 2005 when there was some media scandal about this method of establishing an official identity without any central checking of entitlement. 5 See for example the continuing ambiguity of the status of Temporary Admission (Sawyer and Turpin 2005). 2 RSCAS/EUDO-CIT-CR 2014/1 - © 2014 Authors