Rebordering Britain & Britons after Brexit
Hong Kongers and the coloniality of British citizenship from decolonisation to 'Global Britain'
Abstract
In this article, the author advances understandings of the coloniality of British citizenship through the close examination of the status of the people of Hong Kong in Britain's immigration and nationality legislation. This is a case that has been overlooked in most social scientific analysis of Britain's citizenship-migration nexus. The article responds to Gurminder Bhambra's call to recognise the connected sociologies and histories of citizenship, and the analysis is informed by the close reading of historical changes in legislation - from decolonisation and the making of the British nation-state to the post-Brexit construction of 'Global Britain' - and what these have meant for the people of Hong Kong. In dialogue with scholarship focused on the enduring colonial ties in present-day citizenship and migration regimes, the article offers an analysis inspired by Manuela Boatca's coloniality of citizenship and Ann Laura Stoler's understanding of exception by design: imperial forms of governance producing differential rights within national populations that position some populations as ambiguous. Conceptualising the status of Hong Kongers in British legislation past and present as ambiguous by design, the author questions what the rhetoric of the Hong Kongers as 'good migrants' for 'Global Britain', the narrative at the heart of the promotion of the bespoke Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) (HK BN(O)) visa launched in early 2021, conceals from view. As the author argues, rather than a case apart in the context of increasingly restrictive immigration controls, the renewal of Britain's obligations, commitments and responsibilities to the people of Hong Kong through this visa scheme provides further evidence of the enduring colonial entanglements in the formation of 'Global Britain' and its citizenship-migration nexus.
You might also be interested in :
Reflexive practice in live sociology: lessons from researching Brexit in the lives of British citizens living in the EU-27
This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative.
Brexit Rebordering, Sticky Relationships and the Production of Mixed-Status Families
This article examines the Brexit-driven remaking of some EU families into mixed-status families. Drawing on original research conducted in 2021-2022 with British, EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA citizens living in the UK or the EU/EEA…
Reimagining, Repositioning, Rebordering: Intersections of the Biopolitical and Geopolitical in the UK's Post-Brexit Migration Regime (and Why It Matters for Migration Research)
This article examines the emergence of a new immigration regime in the United Kingdom, following its exit from the European Union, to uncover the entanglements and intersections of biopolitics, geopolitics and ideology in migration and migration governance.
Moral regulation and a good moral panic: UK Polish migrant workers and the 2016 EU Referendum
The UK 2016 EU Referendum has introduced a period of uncertainty for both the indigenous population and for non-British citizens. This uncertainty is considered within a framework of the recent revisions in the sociology of moral panics through an analysis of interviews with Polish migrant workers.