Citizenship Bill hits the Commons…
Today the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill enters Committee stage in the House of Commons. Whilst the government has plunged into chaos during the past few weeks, this Bill has been quietly slinking its way towards Royal Assent - introducing a fundamental change in the way that foreign nationals become British citizens. Becoming a Brit could be about to get longer, tougher and more expensive, despite the lack of any evidence that this would be a necessary or effective measure.
So have these new proposals been robustly debated? It seems not. The Bill first entered the House of Commons in late April after a smooth ride through the House of Lords earlier in the year. Its second reading in the Commons on 2nd June was, lobbyists hoped, a good opportunity for MPs to start picking apart some of the most concerning aspects of the Bill’s ‘earned’ path to citizenship - the connotations of a new ‘probationary citizenship’ stage; the introduction of structured volunteering for naturalisation applicants; the requirement that migrants prove their ‘continuous employment’ in the UK for what might amount to years. These proposals would have serious impacts on all long-term migrants in the UK, particularly those with less social and economic capital.
But the Commons second reading did not turn up much opposition to the proposals. Although Neil Gerrard, and later Pete Wishart, put forward some compelling concerns about an earned citizenship system, MPs seemed largely to concede that government is taking the right approach by exerting additional costs on migrants moving towards citizenship. And the debate was seriously diverted by (now former) Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who put a cat among the pigeons by suggesting that, before the summer, she’d like to look at extending the points-based system being rolled out for economic migration to include applications for citizenship. This hasn’t been mentioned before - what will happen now that she’s left the cabinet?
Lobbyists in support of a long-term and balanced approach to citizenship are hoping that Commons Committee stage (today and 11th June) will turn up some proposed amendments to this Bill, before it’s too late.
- Visit the Bill website to keep an eye on its progress- http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/borderscitizenshipandimmigration.html
- MRN’s full briefing on the ‘earned citizenship’ provisions in the Bill is available on www.migrantsrights.org.uk/briefing_papers.php
- For the full transcript of the debate, visit www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090602/debtext/90602-0004.htm#09060257000002.