Committee holds evidence sessions on nationality and immigration
The Justice and Home Affairs Committee is holding its third and fourth evidence sessions for its inquiry into settlement, citizenship and integration
Meeting details
At 10:30am: Oral evidence
Inquiry
Settlement, Citizenship and Integration
Global Chair in Social Justice at School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool
At 11:30am: Oral evidence
Inquiry
Settlement, Citizenship and Integration
Canada Research Chair in Global Migration at University of Toronto
The Committee will hear from global experts about the UK’s immigration and nationality policy in international and historical context.
For the earlier session, the Committee will hear from Professor Elspeth Guild of the University of Liverpool, who will give evidence about the European context.
In the later session, the Committee will hear from Professor Randall Hansen, a leading historian of British policy on nationality and immigration.
Possible questions for the first evidence session:
- What is the purpose of the UK’s immigration and nationality laws? What is the purpose of EU immigration and free movement law?
- What constraints are placed on UK migration and citizenship policy by international law?
- How are the terms ‘migrant’, ‘alien’, and ‘citizen’ legally defined both domestically and internationally?
- To what extent do more restrictive settlement, immigration, and citizenship rules prevent people moving across borders?
- Is the push-pull theory of migration correct? What other factors explain migration?
Possible questions for the second evidence session:
- In historical context, what is the distinction between nationality law and immigration policy; and what have been the key legislative milestones in the UK since 1948?
- What are the wider demographic and geopolitical trends that have affected immigration to Western countries in recent decades, and which external factors (War, demographic, or economic) are most likely to shape immigration in the coming decades?
- How are discussions around migrants politicised? Does policy drive rhetoric or does rhetoric drive policy?
- Are the concepts of earned settlement and earned citizenship consistent with historical British policy?
- To what extent is there an “inclusionary tradition” of British citizenship overshadowed by exclusionary policy—in other words, is the public more welcoming than Government policy suggests? Does the UK have an ‘integration problem’?