TNAG-0979-FCO40-1198-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1980 — Page 45

CONFIDENTIAL

with a United Kingdom-based organisation.

The Government realise that

there are some individual cases in which a good argument could be made

for taking this view but on the other hand they have to bear in mind that

any arrangement based on a defined connection may in time be misused by

unscrupulous people to secure the right of entry for people living abroad

who have little or no claim on this country. While the Government propose to make generous arrangements for people working abroad, they cannot do

this in such a way that vital United Kingdom interests on the immigration front will be in time prejudiced.

58. A separate provision will be included for the children of Crown

Servants. The people who will principally benefit from this will be the

children of members of the diplomatic service whose parents have diplomatic immunity and who as a rule do not acquire the citizenship of the country

to which their parent is accredited. Such parents are based in the

United Kingdom but spend a high proportion of their lives abroad and it

will be proposed that their children born overseas shall become citizens by birth.

Acquisition of Citizenship by Naturalisation General

59.

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We come now to the acquisition of citizenship by a voluntary act on

the part of an adult person. The word 'naturalisation' has traditionally been reserved for the granting of nationality and citizenship to foreigners

and British Frotected Persons. But the distinction between naturalisation

and registration is blurred, for example because foreign wives and children

acquire citizenship by registration, while in recent years following the Immigration Act of 1971, the registration of a Commonwealth citizen has been

by a process very similar to that of the naturalisation of a foreigner.

Other countries, eg Australia, use the same term in relation to

both classes, and to continue the use of the word 'registration' would do

nothing to reduce the confusion in the use of that word. The Government

think it would now be better to use the term 'naturalisation' to denote the

grant of citizenship to an adult following a period of residence in the United Kingdom, or of Crown Service, and that other types of acquisition

should be known as 'registration'. It will be convenient to refer to

citizenship acquired by either naturalisation or registration as 'citizenship

by grant'.

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