British citizenship set for overhaul
By Ian Dunt
New rules evaluating whether someone has earned British citizenship were announced today by Alan Johnson.
‘Unpatriotic activities’, such as demonstrating against British troops, will count against citizenship, as will a failure to live according to ‘British values’.
The new process would adopt the same structure as the points-based system recently implemented for highly skilled workers.
Voluntary work, speaking English, paying taxes and having useful skills will help the candidate accumulate points, while anti-social behaviour or failure to integrate will lose points.
The proposals mark the first attempt by the government to tinker with the route to citizenship for some time, despite repeated reforms to the immigration system.
Besides citizenship tests – widely derided as too detailed and bizarre even for those who were brought up in the UK – and citizenship ceremonies, there has been no major change to the citizenship system for years.
As things stand, citizenship is essentially automatic once an immigrant has lived legally in the UK for five years without a criminal record. Residency status applies after just four years.
The new plans immediately prompted anger among immigration experts and civil libertarians.
Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigrations Advisory Service (IAS) told politics.co.uk the measures against protest ran contrary to British democracy.
“Ironically one of the civil liberties that British citizens do enjoy is freedom of speech, like going on an anti-war march,” he said.
“It is bizarre in the extreme to say to a potential British citizen that you can’t enjoy the freedom now that you would get if you became a citizen.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman.
“With the proposal that people could be barred for unpatriotic behaviour, it looks as if the government wants to play the Thought Police,” he said today.
“But there should be no question of barring people because they criticise government policy. Democratic values must come first.”
But a Home Office spokesperson said a points-based approach to citizenship would bring the benefits of Britain’s immigration system to citizenship.
“The points-based system has already proved to be a powerful tool for controlling migration for the benefit of both British people and the economy,” the spokesperson said.
“We have already announced our intention to consult on applying these principles to the path to citizenship.
“New laws require migrants to earn citizenship by playing by the rules, speaking English and contributing to the community.”
The Tories attacked the plans as too little too late.
Shadow immigration spokesman Damian Green said: “This is pure spin. There never has been an automatic right to British citizenship. It is simply that this government that has let an unprecedented number of people obtain citizenship, issuing someone with a British passport every five minutes.
“This is an act of desperation by a government that knows it has let immigration run out of control for more than a decade.”
Other plans expected to be announced by the home secretary today include proposals to ban wives brought to the UK from receiving child benefit and other forms of welfare unless they learn English, support British values and do voluntary work.
Any change to the system could affect the 80,000 immigrants who come to the country every year after marrying a British citizen.
Other plans to limit the benefits available to those with residency status, but not citizenship, appear to have been quietly shelved.
“They were indicating people who became citizens would get better access to benefits than those with residency,” Mr Best told politics.co.uk
“They have accepted that is discriminatory. There are many people who for whatever reason either cannot or choose not to become citizens and they have a right to certain benefits.”
Campaigners are expecting a further toughening up of the rules around immigration in the run up to an election next spring, as the full effect of the recession plays on voters minds.
The measures will now go for consultation.
