Title: 'British Citizenship and Immigration Control: Not Just Patriotism'

The recent Brexit discussions often portray EU citizenship as a supra-national status which is at risk of being lost because of resurgence of patriotism. At stake is the cosmopolitan idea of going beyond the nation state for membership but patriotism appears to re-link rights to national citizenship and de-link it from the supranational. I argue that British citizenship rights as connected to nation state membership are weak and historically inter-twined with immigration control. My paper examines how citizenship rights are uncertain both in ordinary times as well as in times of heightened national security concerns when exceptional justifications are presented. It explores how people can be recategorized by immigration laws at ordinary times. It analyses recent trends such as inclusion of private individuals in immigration control, which is not required for emergency reasons but is ordinary, everyday immigration control. While exceptional conditions (including national security and Brexit) may provide some additional justifications for immigration control and loss of citizenship rights (e.g. via denaturalisation or losing status in the UK), national security has never been essential for reducing citizenship rights or status. Further, national security justifications have become routinised with time thereby obliterating differences between the ordinary and the exceptional. Similarly, even without Brexit EEA nationals have come under greater immigration control in recent times owing to the Right to Rent and the Immigration Act 2014 and 2016.