When was citizenship introduced

What is belonging? The answers to these questions are very difficult to pin down, and one cannot assume that British nationals will not answer these in very different ways. Or is it part of a process, a social good that facilitates cohesion?

Is citizenship an end in itself, or is it a means to a cohesive society? The obvious answer is that it is both an individual reward and a social good, but they have very different policy implications. If citizenship is primarily a reward that gives access to resources its restriction is part of what gives it value, while if it is primarily a social good, that suggests that there is a benefit in facilitating the broadest possible access to it.

While the current citizenship debate had its basis in concerns about cohesion, the tests and other restrictions have in practice become obstacles to achieving the legal status, rather than enablers of integration. Most of the public debate on immigration has been conducted about entry rather than about settlement. The only group whose movement can be directly controlled in and out are non-EEA nationals.

The focus on net migration means that there is an interest in discouraging the settlement of non-EU migrants in particular as the one group whose movement out can be overtly facilitated. As discussed above, because of the increasingly close relation between settlement and formal citizenship, this has direct implications for citizenship.

Making settlement and citizenship more difficult can help to limit net migration by encouraging churn and in effect may be used to enable long stay to be limited to those with high human capital. However, there are also risks to such policies.

Increasing the proportion of migrants who have temporary stay will result in a growing number of people residing in the UK with very limited rights. For migrants who wish to stay longer than the initial period granted by their visa there are three options, overstaying, renewing their visa i. Depending on how the legislation is implemented and on the particular conditions attached to their entry, this would have different consequences.

One consequence of increased numbers of people on temporary visas that are valid for a period of several years is that some will become parents while they are resident in the UK. These children will not be British citizens.

In this way there is a risk that citizenship and settlement policies make integration and cohesion more difficult rather than easier. The reasons for this have been traced back to the development of the state, and also the British Empire which ruled territories and people as British subjects Shulman However, not all subjects of the British Empire were equal to one another. However, one of the fundamental principles of liberal citizenship is that all citizens are formally equal to each other.

Of course there are many axes of inequality between citizens by ethnicity, gender, physical and mental disability, income and so on ; if there were not there would be no call for anti-discrimination legislation and practices. The relation between citizenship and ideals of cohesion, integration and equality, remains unclear. More particularly the aims of citizenship policy are not well defined, in stark contrast to immigration policy.

Nevertheless there have been considerable changes to the processes of acquiring formal citizenship, including the introduction of a number of tests. These ostensibly promote citizenship and sense of belonging, but there is also some evidence that they are making citizenship acquisition more difficult, particularly for certain groups Ryan It seems that a number of, often competing, ideas about what citizenship is and why it should be valued are being brought to bear on acquisition processes.

These formal processes are not necessarily able to accommodate all these ideas. Arguably this makes a more flexible approach more desirable, and there is a risk of creating an ever increasing number of people with extremely limited rights. Contents The issue: What is British citizenship and why does it matter? Breaking the link between settlement and citizenship What is the relation between citizenship, belonging and Britishness? What is the aim of citizenship policy?

What are the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens? Search this exhibition. Defining Citizenship. View object record. How to Become a Citizen of the United States , Gift of W. New citizens taking the Oath of Allegiance as part of their naturalization ceremony, Chicago, October 13, Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

Of particular urgency is the issue of whether extreme practices such as genital cutting and the exchange of child brides can be tolerated by the world community on the grounds that they represent cultural difference. As so often happens in times of great change, however, questions of women and gender are set to the side as scholars and politicians deal with problems framed as more important, such as nation building, terrorism, and the economic crisis, issues that we would argue are intertwined with the roles and rights of women as much as with those of their male counterparts.

The s witnessed a boom in scholarship, both mainstream and feminist, on citizenship. The fall of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves.

Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. Institutional Login. LOG IN. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Introduction: Citizenship.