British Citizenship and the right of free movement within the European Community
32. The establishment of a British Citizenship would make it necessary to re-examine, in negotiation with our partners, the present definition of United Kingdom national for European
purposes Community. If the transitional arrangements suggested above were to be enacted, there would be some people who would become
British Citizens but who have not the right of free movement
under the definition now in force. These would include those
citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies from overseas who
have been settled and resident in the United Kingdom for less than five years, the British Protected Persons, and (for the most part) the British Subjects without Citizenship resident in the United Kingdom.
A BRITISH CITIZENSHIP
PERMANENT ARRANGEMENTS
33.
These would be the arrangements for acquiring British Citizenship by birth, descent or a voluntary act, such as applying for naturalisation, once a new scheme of citizenship had come into force. Unlike the transitional arrangements,
these would not affect people then alive who held our citizen- ship, and there is therefore a wider range of possible courses
to be considered. Some ideas are set out below.
(a) Citizenship by birth
34. The United Kingdom, in common with the USA, Latin American and many Commonwealth countries, at present confers citizenship on everyone who is born in the United Kingdom (or indeed in the Colonies), irrespective of their parents' citizenship. In contrast, Continental countries confer their citizenship on those born in their territories only if the child's parent is himself (or herself) a citizen of the country. These two
methods of conferring citizenship are known respectively as
the ius soli and the ius sanguinis.