TNAG-0660-FCO40-809-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1977 — Page 83

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PERMANENT ARRANGEMENTS

Linking the citizenship to the right of entry to a dependency

71.

調

The arrangements for acquiring British Overseas Citizenship after a new citizenship scheme came into force by birth, descent or voluntary act - might be so drawn that we could eventually reach a state of affairs in which British Overseas Citizenship would be derived solely from connection with the dependencies which still exist, and would confer the right of entry to one of them. If this were not done, there would still be many British Overseas Citizens scattered over the world in a hundred years' time who have the right of entry neither to the United Kingdom nor to a dependency. The rules for acquiring and transmitting British Overseas Citizenship would have to take account of the difficulties faced by dependencies and the pressure on their resources, which mean that they can give the right of entry only to those who have very close ties with them. They could not radically alter their arrangements; there could not, for example, be an understanding that a British Overseas Citizen could go to live in any dependency he might choose unless he had such ties with it.

72.

Accordingly it seems inevitable that the standards for British Overseas Citizenship should differ from those for British Citizenship. British Citizenship could not be adjusted so as to follow the limits proposed for British Overseas Citizenship; the shape of British Citizenship could hardly be determined by the limits placed by dependencies on those with a right of entry to them. On the other hand it would be fruitless to provide that British Overseas Citizenship should follow British Citizenship in all respects. To do so would simply mean that some people who would acquire British Overseas Citizenship, for example through birth to a woman from a dependency, would find that they had no right of entry to the dependency from which their status was derived. Moreover if British Overseas Citizenship is to be confined to those who "belong" to the dependencies, the arrangements for holding it must reflect the outlook and attitudes of the peoples of the dependencies, and these are bound to differ from those of the people of the United Kingdom.

73.

In general, therefore, the long term aim ought to be to confine British Overseas Citizenship to those with a right of entry to a dependency. To take first of all the arrangements for transmission of citizenship, it ought not to pass automatically to a child born outside a dependency unless the father is a citizen by birth, registration or naturalisation in an existing dependency. This would of course mean that some British Overseas Citizens would be able to transmit citizenship to their children while others would not. There could be some minor exceptions to the general rule. For example, it might be right to include a provision for conferring citizenship on the stateless child of a British Overseas Citizen, once the child had established a direct connection with a dependency by living there for, say, 3 years. Second, women from the dependencies might only be able to transmit citizenship to their children born abroad where the child was illegitimate. This is because dependencies might be reluctant to grant

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