Characterising Citizenship: Race, Criminalisation and the Extension of Internal Borders

Abstract

Citizenship in the UK has in recent times been explicitly framed as a privilege not a right, granted selectively and withdrawn from some. There are several criteria that assist the government in distinguishing those deserving of British citizenship from those undeserving, one of the key ones being ‘character’. The ‘bad character’ criterion can apply for multiple reasons from inconsistencies in immigration paperwork to direct or indirect political associations with a range of disavowed political groups. Although not new, ‘bad character’ has become a principle reason for citizenship refusals in recent years, though has received little academic scrutiny. By bringing together quantitative and qualitative data on citizenship refusals, the article maps the scale of this measure, outlining what it means and to whom it applies. It argues that the ‘bad character’ criterion operates as a racialised exclusionary mechanism that constitutes a new set of amorphous restrictions upon the lives of non-white denizens.