Because of where I was born and where my grandfather was born, I think I could apply (or at least could have applied) for British or Irish or European Union citizenship or (for a while) all three. Indeed I have often been told I should have done so -- that it is wonderful to have many citizenships, to be able to choose whatever lineup is shortest at the arrivals terminal, or perhaps even assist one's children in living elsewhere at some point.
But I have always avoided doing so. I'm a Canadian through and through and have never held any other documentation. I like to say, if you claim a second nationality, eventually that other country will want to tax you or conscript you, and I'm only prepared to accept that possibility from the country of which I am proud and prepared to be a citizen. My (Canadian) papers are in order. My kids will fend for themselves in foreign parts.
I'm just discovering that His Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom sees it differently.
Britain is the country I was born in, lo these many years ago, and Britain now declares that all who are British citizens with some other nationality can only enter Britain by showing their British passport (or under some circumstances using a one-time special dispensation -- that costs almost 600 British pounds). They have a website that enables you to find if you count as a British citizen -- and yep, being born there is the first, pretty much unavoidable, proof. (Here's the webpage.) In effect, if I arrive at a British airport, the British government can refuse to recognize my Canadian citizenship and passport, and throw me out of the country forthwith for arriving without a British one.
Fortunately a lot of people who are a lot more British-ish than I am -- former passport holders and so on -- are beginning to notice this emerging situation. And are finding it "scandalous and unacceptable." Resistance is afoot.
I'm beginning to think my inherited (and I must admit, not much acknowledged) guilt for having benefitted from the British Empire is now being visited on me. When I was brought to Canada, there was practically no paperwork for white British people to immigrate to Canada: we just came. The Canadian government hardly considered us as foreigners. "A Canadian citizen is a British subject," it used to say. And now I'm being punished for it -- or would be if I dropped in at Heathrow.
On the other, I am simultaneously beginning to think that Mark Carney's massive military build-up has to allow for another target needing to see the full force of our Canadian wrath: the country that wants to kidnap a whole lot of us Canadians into becoming somehow British, despite us having all made the conscious choice to be free and independent Canadians instead.
Anyway, if you are in a similar situation to mine, you might consider your plight before you decide to go walking in the Cotswolds, or playing a round at St Andrews, or taking in some West End theatah-- or whatever else one does in that foreign land. Eat a crumpet?
Meanwhile, if you happen to be an immigration and citizenship lawyer reading this blog, feel free to advise how I can avoid being shanghai'd.
(Actually, Canada also requires dual nationals entering Canada to present their Canadian passport. But I'm not sure Canada imposes dual nationality on people who just happened to be born here, as the British seem to find themselves promising to do.)
