3 Immigration Act 1971

In the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around Britain was concerned with the possible effect of large scale immigration from its former colonies. Until the Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962, all Commonwealth citizens could enter and stay in the United Kingdom without any restriction. Successive acts restricted the categories who could enter freely, but those CUKCs who had passports issued by the British Government (as opposed to those issued by colonial governments) retained unrestricted access. The most notable group were the UgandanThe Republic of Uganda is a country in east central Africa. It is bordered in the east by Kenya, in the north by Sudan, by the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west, Rwanda in the southwest and Tanzania in the south. The southern part of the country in Indians expelled by Idi AminGeneral Idi Amin Dada Oumee ( May 17, 1928? August 16, 2003) was the military dictator of Uganda from January 25, 1971, to April 13, 1979. Idi Amin was born in the Kakwa tribe, near Koboko in the West Nile Arua district. The year is not known, due to a la in 1968Events Undated Booker Prize for Fiction is established by Booker plc. 1968 is known as the year of the Prague Spring and also the year of the Paris riots. The ASCII character code is standardized as ANSI Standard X3. Nauru adopt his national anthem of the.

The Immigration Act 1971 created the concept of patriality or right of abode. CUKCs and other Commonwealth citizens only had the right of abode in the UK if they, their parents or their grandparents were born in the United Kingdom and Islands (the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man). This placed the UK in the rare position of denying some of its nationals entry into their country of nationality. (One consequence of this has been the inability of the United Kingdom to ratify the Fourth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right of abode for nationals, a right which is widely recognized in international law.)

However, this was recognized as only a temporary solution, so the British government embarked on a major reform of the law, resulting in the British Nationality Act 1981.

4 British Nationality Act 1981

This Act abolished the status of CUKC, and replaced it with three new statuses: British Citizenship, British Dependent Territories Citizenship (BDTC) and British Overseas Citizenship (BOC). British Citizens were those CUKCs who had a close relation with the United Kingdom and Islands (i.e. those who possessed right of abode); BDTCs were those with a close relationship with one of the remaining colonies, renamed Dependent Territories; while BOCs were those CUKCs that were not eligible for British Citizen status or BDTC status. This changeover occurred on the day the Act entered into force, January 1, 1983.

The act also retained the status of British subject without citizenship as British subject, while ending the use of the term for those British subjects who had one of the various national citizenships, though the term Commonwealth citizen continues to be used in that regard.

For further information on the present use of the term "British subject", see British subject.

5 British Protected Persons

The 1981 Act also continued another status, that of British Protected Person (BPP), which is not a form of nationality as such (BPPs were never British subjects), but a status conferred to citizens of states under British protection. It has been argued that since BPPs are not considered stateless, they must hold a form of nationality, and that nationality must be a form of British nationality.

British Protected Persons are those that had a connection with a former British Protectorate, Protected State, League of Nations mandate or United Nations Trust Territory. British Overseas Citizens, by contrast, are those that have such a relationship with former British colonies. (Protectorates, Protected States, Mandates and Trust Territories were never, legally speaking, British colonies.)

A British Protected Person, like a British Subject, will lose that status upon acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.

6 British National (Overseas) status

The Hong Kong handover resulted in yet another status: British National (Overseas) (BN(O)). Most Hong Kongers prior to the handover had BDTC status. Upon handover, most would have lost this status and became nationals of the People's Republic of China. Some people in Hong Kong were unhappy about losing their British nationality, and as a result the United Kingdom created a new status that Hong Kong BDTCs could apply for.

British National (Overseas) status was given effect by the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986. Article 4(1) of the Order provided that on and after 1 July 1987, there would be a new form of British nationality, the holders of which would be known as British Nationals (Overseas). Article 4(2) of the Order provided that adults and minors who had a connection to Hong Kong were entitled to make an application to become British Nationals (Overseas) by registration.

Becoming a British National (Overseas) was therefore not an automatic or involuntary process and indeed many eligible people who had the requisite connections to Hong Kong never applied to become British Nationals (Overseas).

No person could become a British National (Overseas) automatically for having been born in Hong Kong, by descent or by any involuntary means. A person became a British National (Overseas) by making a valid application on the prescribed form to the British authorities to be registered for that nationality, and applicants only became a British National (Overseas) when their application was approved and duly registered by the Home Secretary.

A special group of British Nationals (Overseas) were the non-Chinese ethnic minorities of Hong Kong. They were primarily of Indian & Pakistani descent, but also persons of Sri Lankan, Nepali, Phillippino, Portuguese descent. After the handover to China, they would not have the ability to become Chinese citizens, as they were not of Chinese race. It was succesfully argued that they would effectively become stateless - they would have only a form of British nationality but no right of abode in the UK, and the right of abode in Hong Kong but no Chinese nationality. The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP, present Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs said in January 1997 that a claim that British National (Overseas) status amounts to British nationality “is pure sophistry”.

The ethnic minorities campaigned to be granted full British citizenship. In response to expressions of concern in both Houses of Parliament as far as back as the late 1980s, the Prime Minister discussed the issue with the Home Secretary during the week of 27-31 January 1997. The Home Secretary appeared to be in a minority in the Cabinet in resisting the grant of British citizenship to the group, and the Prime Minister suggested that the Cabinet might need to resolve the issue. The Home Secretary agreed to consider the matter over the weekend. On 4 February 1997, the Government announced that provisions would be made to grant full British citizenship (with the right of abode in the UK) to the solely British ethnic minorities of Hong Kong. The subsequently enacted British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1997 gives them an entitlement to acquire full British citizenship by making an application to register for that status.

7 The present position

There are thus at present six different types of British national (or protected person):

• British Citizens
• British Overseas Territories Citizens (formerly British Dependent Territories Citizens)
• British Overseas Citizens
• British Subjects
• British Nationals (Overseas)
• British Protected Persons

Right of Abode, i.e. the right to enter and live in the UK freely, is only automatically held by British citizens, as well as by some British subjects and those other Commonwealth citizens who were patrials under the Immigration Act 1971.

For the purposes of the European Communities treaties, the nationals of the United Kingdom comprise all British citizens, British subjects with the right of abode, and British Overseas Territories citizens by virtue of a connection with Gibraltar. These UK nationals enjoy the status of European citizen in common with nationals of other member states of the European Union.

8 Recent changes

The Labour Government of Tony Blair has liberalised the nationality laws in respect of some of Britain's nationals without the right of abode.

The British Overseas Territories Act 2002 changes the British Dependent Territories to British Overseas Territories, and British Dependent Territories Citizenship to British Overseas Territories Citizenship. This change is supposed to reflect the no longer "dependent" status of these territories, but may create confusion due to the close similarity between the terms "British Overseas Citizen" and "British Overseas Territories Citizen".

The Act also gives all British Overseas Territories Citizens the right to register as British Citizens, and thus acquire the right of abode, except those whose connection is to the military outposts known as the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. Until their successful claim against the British Government in the High Court over their eviction from their Territory, those connected to the British Indian Ocean Territory which houses the United States military base of Diego Garcia were to be excluded as well, but are now included. The accession of the whole island of Cyprus to the European Union would possibly have made the sole exclusion of the Sovereign Base Areas untenable, as they would become the only Cypriots (as well as the only British Overseas Territories citizens) not to have the right to live and work in the United Kingdom. However, in 2004, only the Greek part of the island was admitted, and the issue has not surfaced.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 has also granted British Overseas Citizens, British Subjects and British Protected Persons the right to register as British citizens if they do not hold and have not intentionally renounced another citizenship. Previously such persons would have not had the right of abode in any country, and would have thus been practically stateless.

The Act has also extended the right to register as a British citizen to all those born of a British mother after 1961.

9 Acquisition of British Citizenship

British Citizenship can be acquired in the following ways:

1. By lex solis: By birth in the United Kingdom (excluding family members of foreign diplomats or consular staff)
2. By lex sanguinis (by descent): Children of a mother with British citizenship, or legitimate children of a father with British citizenship (provided the parent did not also acquire their citizenship by descent).
3. By naturalisation
4. By registration

Person acquiring citizenship by method (2) are called citizens by descent, while citizens acquiring citizenship by methods (1), (3) or (4) are called citizens otherwise than by descent. Only citizens otherwise than by descent can pass on their citizenship to their children automatically; citizens by descent can only pass on citizenship to their children by registering them.

Registration is a simpler method of acquiring citizenship than naturalisation, but only certain people are eligible for it.

Some persons are eligible for registration as citizens automatically, but this registration must be done before their eighteenth birthday: the illegitimate children of a father with British citizenship, children not born in the UK of citizens by descent, and those born of a mother who had CUKC status prior to the entry into force of the British Nationality Act 1981.

Commonwealth citizens holding right of abode, and British nationals without the right of abode who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK, are eligible for British citizenship by registration after 5 years residence in the United Kingdom.

While the British Nationality Act 1981 provides that both fathers (if the child is legitimate) and mothers can pass on British citizenship to their children, the British Nationality Act 1948 did not allow women to pass on their citizenship. The British Nationality Act 1981 remedied this in relation to children born from 1983, but did not grant British citizenship to those deprived of CUKC status by operation of the previous British legislation. Those persons so deprived could become citizens by registration, but only before their eighteenth birthday. However, a recent change means that all children of British mothers born since 1961 are now entitled to register for British citizenship. Those who remain excluded, while not British citizens, nonetheless continue to have the right of abode in the United Kingdom if they are Commonwealth citizens.

10 Loss of British Citizenship

There are several ways of losing the various forms of British nationality. All categories of British nationality can be renounced by a declaration made to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Renunciations made to other authorities are invalid: e.g. a general renunciation made upon taking up U.S. citizenship. Furthermore, there are provisions for the resumption of British citizenship etc. renounced for the purpose of gaining another citizenship. This can generally only be done once.

British subjects (other than British subjects by virtue of a connexion with British Ireland) and British protected persons will lose their British nationality upon acquiring any other form of nationality, whether British, Commonwealth or foreign.

Under the recent Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, British nationals can be deprived of their citizenship if the Secretary of State is satisfied they are responsible for acts seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom or an Overseas Territory. This will only apply to dual nationals, as it will not be possible if the deprival would result in the person's statelessness.

11 Also see

• Britishness test

International law United Kingdom law

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