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Auditing British Citizens

Recent events in Britain and elsewhere have put citizenship firmly back on the political agenda. In the United States, for example, the issue of the rights of some 12 million ‘illegal immigrants’ is on the public agenda. One proposal has been the assertion that English is, or should be, the nation’s common and unifying language. Underlying this whole debate is the idea of citizenship because how resident immigrants, illegal or otherwise, are treated, and possibly allowed to become full citizens, depends upon understandings of what American citizenship is all about. Is a working knowledge of English a requirement? What role does a sense of cultural commonality play? Should length of residence, as has also been proposed, be taken into account? Does a pattern of otherwise law-abiding, tax-paying residency, in other words, confer rights and, if so, what rights? The debate about immigration and citizenship has also surfaced in Europe. In Italy, for example, the centre-left Prodi government plans to introduce legislation to ease the requirements for illegal immigrant workers, mainly from Africa, to acquire legal status. Studies of public opinion indicate that many Italians would like to see such workers expelled. Others, however, would prefer a process of regularization given the significant economic role these immigrants play. Such policy options reflect similar conflicting choices and debates across the Atlantic. The question of citizenship, however, is far broader than the issue of the rights of illegal immigrants. In Britain itself, for example, a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that a system of compulsory voting should be adopted to combat low turnout by citizens in local and national elections. It is true that the general elections of 2001 and 2005 have produced the lowest levels of voter participation since the First World War, but this debate too revolves around understandings of citizenship. British citizenship today entails a right to vote, for those over 18 at least, but does it also entail an obligation to vote and, if so, should a sanction be imposed by the state for those who, for one reason or another, do Government and Opposition, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 258–265, 2007