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 postBrexit 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 Boatcă’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. Originally published in Current Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921211048530
Authors
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- United Kingdom