In this paper, I interrogate the English case law on citizenship deprivation and its effects on the migrant and diasporic communities most affected by it from a critical postcolonial perspective. I explore how it forms part of state responses to national security that are rooted in racist imperialist ideologies. These underpinnings are ignored in law because such responses are supposedly reserved for exceptional circumstances. This has led to a lack of critical awareness of the wider damage they cause. The damage caused is compounded by the ways that citizenship deprivation constitutes a technology of the politics of belonging. It orientalises people, “othering” and dividing them into those who belong and those who do not based on their differences. This approach leaves racialised and minoritised citizens more vulnerable to losing their citizenship which is a deliberate form of control reminiscent of the longstanding behaviour of colonialist imperialists.
AlivertiA (2019) Law, nation and race: Exploring law's cultural power in delimiting belonging in English courtrooms. Social and Legal Studies28(3): 281–302.
2.
Al ZubairiF (2019) Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism, and Anti-Terrorism Law in the Arab World. Cambridge: CUP.
3.
BaubockRPaskalevV (2015) Cutting genuine links: A normative analysis of citizenship deprivation. Georgetown Immigration Law Journal30: 47–104.
BhambraG (2015) Citizens and others: The constitution of citizenship through exclusion. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political40(2): 102–114.
6.
BraunVClarkeV (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology3: 77–101.
7.
ChoudhuryT (2017) The radicalisation of citizenship deprivation. Critical Social Policy37(2): 225–244.
8.
Crowley J (1999) The politics of belonging: some theoretical considerations. In Favell A (ed) The Politics of Belonging: Migrants and Minorities in Contemporary Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 15–41.
9.
El-EnanyN (2020) (B)ordering Britain: Law, Race and Empire. Manchester: Manchester UP.
10.
FortierA (2017) The psychic life of policy: Desire, anxiety and ‘citizenisation’ in Britain. Critical Social Policy37(1): 3–21.
11.
GibneyM (2013) ‘A very transcendental power’: Denaturalisation and the liberalisation of citizenship in the United Kingdom. Political Studies61(3): 637–655.
12.
GrosfoguelR (2007) The epistemic decolonial turn. Cultural Studies21(2–3): 211–223.
13.
HampshireJ (2005) Citizenship and Belonging: Immigration and the Politics of Demographic Governance in Postwar Britain. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
14.
HansenR (2000) British citizenship after empire: A defence. Political Quarterly71(1): 42–49.
15.
HealyM (2020) The other side of belonging. Studies in Philosophy and Education39: 119–133.
KapoorN (2018) Deport, Deprive, Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism. London: Verso Books.
18.
KapoorNNarkowiczK (2019a) Unmaking citizens: Passport removals, pre-emptive policing and the reimagining of colonial governmentalities. Ethnic and Racial Studies42(16): 45–62.
19.
KapoorNNarkowiczK (2019b) Characterising citizenship: Race, criminalisation and the extension of internal borders. Sociology53(4): 652–670.
20.
KapurR (2010) Makeshift Migrants and Law: Gender, Belonging and Postcolonial Anxieties. New Delhi: Routledge.
21.
KarataniR (2002) Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth and Modern Britain. London: Routledge.
22.
KerrJ (2018) Deprivation of citizenship, the Immigration Act 2014 and discrimination against naturalised citizens. Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law32(2): 103–132.
23.
KerrJ (2019) ‘Take heed what thou doest: For this man is roman’ – The arbitrary use of deprivation of citizenship as a public relations management tool. Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law33(4): 332–354.
24.
LarsonCFW (2019) The Trials of Allegiance: Treason, Juries, and the American Revolution. Oxford: OUP.
25.
LenardPT (2016) Democracies and the power to revoke citizenship. Ethics and International Affairs30(1): 73–91.
26.
MacklinA (2014) Citizenship revocation, the privilege to have rights and the production of the alien. Queen’s Law Journal40(1): 1–54.
27.
MainsS, et al. (2013) Commentary: Postcolonial migrations. Social and Cultural Geography14(2): 131–144.
28.
MantuS (2014) Citizenship deprivation in the United Kingdom: Statelessness and terrorism. Tilburg Law Review19: 163–170.
29.
MerryW (2017) DO the recent changes in the UK’s approach to the deprivation of citizenship and statelessness constitute an unacceptable attack on British citizenship. Bristol Law Review4: 165–186.
30.
MgbeojiI (2006) The civilised self and the barbaric other: Imperial delusions of order and the challenges of human security. Third World Quarterly27(5): 855–869.
31.
PrabhatD (2016a) Unleashing the Force of Law: Legal Mobilization, National Security, and Basic Freedoms. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
32.
PrabhatD (2016b) Political context and meaning of British citizenship: Cancellation as a national security measure. Law Culture and the Humanities16(2): 294–312.
PrabhatD (2019) Introduction to Citizenship in Times of Turmoil? Theory, Practice and Policy. In: PrabhatD (eds) Citizenship in Times of Turmoil? Theory, Practice and Policy. London: Elgar Publishing, xi–xvii.
35.
PrabhatD (2020) Unequal citizenship and subjecthood: A rose by any other name …?Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly71(2): 175–191.
36.
RossA (2014) Deprivation of citizenship: What do we know?Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law28(4): 316–325.
37.
RoyA (2008) Postcolonial theory and Law: A critical introduction. Adelaide Law Review29: 315–357.
38.
SaidE (1978) Orientalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
ThorntonAP (1962) Colonialism. International Journal17(4): 335–357.
42.
TripkovicM (2021) Transcending the boundaries of punishment: On the nature of citizenship deprivation. British Journal of Criminology 61(4): 1044–1065.
43.
TroyD (2019) Governing imperial citizenship: A historical account of citizenship revocation. Citizenship Studies23(4): 304–319.
Van WaasLJaghaiS (2018) All citizens are created equal, but some are more equal than others. Netherlands International Law Review65: 413–430.
46.
Yuval-DavisN (2004) Borders, boundaries and the politics of belonging. In: MaySModoodTSquiresJ (eds) Ethnicity, Nationalism and Minority Rights. Cambridge: CUP. 214–230
47.
Yuval-DavisN (2006) Belonging and the politics of belonging. Patterns of Prejudice40(3): 197–214.
48.
Yuval-DavisN (2007) Intersectionality, citizenship and contemporary politics of belonging. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy10(4): 561–574.
49.
ZednerL (2016) Citizenship deprivation, security and human rights. European Journal of Migration and Law18: 222–242.
