Reaching Beyond Citizenship: Registration of Children as British Citizens

Long term child residents, recently granted British citizenship, provide valuable insight at workshop co-funded by University of Bristol Law School and PolicyBristol.

Press release issued: 14 December 2015

On 4th of December, a workshop co-funded by the Law School and PolicyBristol, was attended by leading organisations interested in nationality, citizenship and children's welfare issues - and by young people recently registered as British citizens.

Despite living nearly all their lives in Britain some children are unable to access University education. They are not eligible for student loans because of their nationality.

The workshop, which took place at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation in London, led to an in-depth discussion of the challenges that exist in acquiring British citizenship for long term resident children - and an opportunity to think of creative strategies to overcome the challenges.

The discussions generated a number of thoughtful comments and ideas from participants from PRCBC, Coventry Law Centre, Unicef, Amnesty International, The Children’s Society, Immigration Law Practitioners Association, Just for Kids Law, Coram CLC, and the University of Bristol Law School.

A highlight of the event was that young people who have gone through the registration process narrated biographical anecdotes to inform everyone about the systemic inadequacies in the process.

The participants are now working closely to plan interventions in this area which aim to close the gap between law and policy.

Further information

The event was jointly organised by London based Solange Valdez, Lead Attorney and Director of the Project for Registration of British Citizenship (PRCBC), and Dr Devyani Prabhat, Lecturer University of Bristol Law School, Principal Investigator of the ESRC Citizenship Project

Additional reading:

UN Universal Children's Day press release

PolicyBristol briefing document