Immigration Act 1971


The Immigration Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning immigration. The Act, as with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, and that of 1968, restricts immigration, especially primary immigration into the UK. It introduced the concept of patriality or right of abode. It was also partly passed to legally clarify the rights of Commonwealth citizens within the United Kingdom in preparation for future membership of the European Communities in which the United Kingdom would later became a member state from 1 January 1973 which gave not only new automatic rights to EC member state citizens under but would also give them priority over non-EC citizens under the Treaty of Rome which the UK became a signatory though the Treaty of Accession which was signed on 22 January 1972. It is connected in relation to deportation notices, at sections 11 and 23 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Background

Labour government proposed the Commonwealth Immigrants act of 1968 in response to the threat of 200,000 Asian immigrants leaving Kenya due to its attempts at 'Africanisation' in 1967. The act was passed in just three days, partly due to the support and fierce drive of then-Home Secretary, James Callaghan. This broke from the non-discriminatory immigration policy that had preceded it. The UK Government saw a need to appease Canada, New Zealand and Australia over the future negative impact on them when Britain would join the European Economic Community that would be hardest on people who had emigrated from Britain in the expectation of continued close ties.

Summary

One result of the Act was to stop the permanent migration of workers from the Commonwealth of Nations. It further elaborated the definition of "patrial" migrants, first introduced in the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, as persons born in the United Kingdom and persons who had resided there for the previous five years or longer.

Right of abode

The act limited the right to enter and live in the United Kingdom to certain subsets of Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies with ties to the UK itself.
That wording of the measure introduced minor confusion into the concept of the right of abode, when it limited right of abode through descent to a CUKC who had a parent who had CUKC status by "birth, adoption, naturalisation or.... registration in the United Kingdom or in any of the islands" or a grandparent CUKC who "at the time of that birth or adoption so had it".
Whether "so had it" referred to a grandparent who was had CUKC status generally or CUKC status from the UK and islands specifically was decided by courts to refer to the latter.
As the right of abode on 31 December 1982 was necessary to become a British citizen on 1 January 1983 under the automatic transition at commencement of CUKC provisions of the British Nationality Act 1981, this meant that failing to meet the interpretation of the right of abode test above resulted in no British citizenship through that route.
The British Nationality Act 1981 modified the right of abode section of the Immigration Act 1971 to remove the wording at issue, although the former version still had effect for determinations of British citizenship through right of abode for persons born before 1983 and potentially their descendants.

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