Who is British?

 The Nationality and Borders Act that allows citizenship to be stripped without notifying the subject.

Frances Webber,  the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) vice-chair and report author, wrote: “The message sent by the legislation on deprivation of citizenship since 2002 and its implementation largely against British Muslims of south Asian heritage is that, despite their passports, these people are not and can never be ‘true’ citizens, in the same way that ‘natives’ are.

“While a ‘native’ British citizen, who has access to no other citizenship, can commit the most heinous crimes without jeopardising his right to remain British, none of the estimated 6 million British citizens with access to another citizenship can feel confident in the perpetual nature of their citizenship.” 

Webber said: “These classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of south Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Such divisions act as a constant reminder to minority ethnic citizens that they must watch their step, and reinforce racist messages about ‘undeserving’ racialised groups unworthy of being British.”

The “Citizenship: from right to privilege” report argues the effect is that certain people have a “second-class, disposable, contingent citizenship”. The report describes the criteria for deprivation of citizenship as “nebulous and undefined” and warns of a risk of its use for political purposes.

The report said citizenship-stripping is “just one aspect of measures targeting Muslim communities, in Britain and abroad, in the past two decades, which have helped to turn British Muslims in the UK into a ‘suspect community’”.

British Muslims’ citizenship reduced to ‘second-class’ status, says thinktank | Islam | The Guardian