Who do we think we are?

By: Michaela Benson - Who do we think we are?
  • Summary

  • From Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, to the Windrush deportation scandal citizenship and the responsibilities of the UK government to the people of Hong Kong, it seems that citizenship and migration in Britain are never far from the headlines. Who do we think we are? explores all of this and more. Join Professor Michaela Benson and her guests as they debunk taken-for-granted understandings of who is a citizen and who is a migrant in Britain today.
    Michaela Benson
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Episodes
  • TRAILER: Who do we think we are?
    Sep 22 2021

    Who do we think we are? is a podcast focussed on the conversations we need to be having about British citizenship today. It tells the story of how British citizenship developed and why this matters for questions of migration, citizenship and belonging in Britain today. The trailer identifies some of the issues covered in the series, from the removal of birthright citizenship through the British Nationality Act 1981 to how Britain was made as a white nation-state through immigration and nationality legislation. The episode features contributors to the series Gurminder Bhambra, Devyani Prabhat, Elsa Oommen, Imogen Tyler, John Vassiliou and host, Michaela Benson. 

    Access the transcript

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    7 mins
  • S1 E1 Why we need to look at history to understand British citizenship today?
    Oct 15 2021

    Did you know that the current definition of British citizenship is only 40 years old? Who do we think we are? starts its exploration of British citizenship by looking at the history of British citizenship, and how remembering that the question of who counts as British has changed alongside shifts in Britain’s position in the world might make us think again about these questions and their consequences in the present-day. In this episode, host Michaela Benson, a sociologist specialising in questions of citizenship and migration, draws on her family history to bring the story of British citizenship in the second half of the twentieth century to life and explores British subjecthood, a precursor to citizenship. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back into the archive to explore the 1961 Immigration Bill and the measures that this introduced. They are joined by guest, Gurminder Bhambra, Professor in Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, to talk about how recognising the back story to the development of British citizenship might change the ways that we think about migration, social justice and inequality in Britain today.

    Access the episode transcript 

    In this episode we cover …

    • The short history of British citizenship as we know it
    • The introduction of immigration controls for Citizens of the UK and Colonies
    • Why history matters for making sense of the inequalities at the heart of Britain’s contemporary citizenship-migration regime

     

    Quote

    Citizenship is something that emerges in the mid to late 20th century as a category by way of which to stop people moving. We often think about this idea of passports as if that’s what enables us to move; actually, it was about stopping people moving.

    — Gurminder Bhambra

     

    Where can you find out more about the topics in today’s episode?

    You can find out more about Gurminder’s research on her website (which includes links to freely-accessible copies of many of her published works) and follow her on Twitter @GKBhambra

    You can read Michaela’s full interview with Gurminder in The Sociological Review Magazine

    Gurminder also mentioned Radhika Mongia’s 2018 book Indian Migration and Empire. To get a bit more of a flavour of the book and its contents, you can visit The Disorder of Things Blog, who have hosted a symposium on this work.

     

    Call to action

    You can subscribe to the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed.

    To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, visit our blog and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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    26 mins
  • S1 E2 What can the development of immigration legislation tell us about citizenship in Britain?
    Oct 29 2021
    Why do changes in Britain's immigration laws matter for making sense of citizenship today? What is the relationship of these changes to Britain's shift from empire to nation-state? In this episode, host Michaela Benson explains how decolonisation and the independence struggles of Britain's former colonies set the stage for citizenship to emerge in Britain. She explores the shift from subjecthood to citizenship and what this meant for people around the British Empire. Podcast researcher George Kalivis goes back into the archive to explore the introduction of the British Nationality Act 1948. They are joined by Devyani Prabhat, Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, to talk about what citizenship means in law; how the development of citizenship in Britain was a process of inclusion and exclusion managed through immigration and nationality legislation at their intersections; and how this understanding helps us to see the entrenched racism at the heart of nationality and immigration law today, including the British Nationality Act 1981. Access the full episode transcript In this episode we cover … The shifts in Britain's nationality legislation from the British Nationality Acts of 1948 and 1981How the development of British citizenship was caught up in Britain's decolonisationWhat immigration controls introduced in the 1960s and 1970s can tell us about the changing definition of what it meant to be British over time Quote Citizenship was not really defined in British Immigration and Nationality Laws for a very long time, in terms of the country.  So it wasn’t about the UK as such and the reason is very much historical, it’s based on the British empire and its relationship with colonies and former colonies and each stage of the Immigration and Nationality Laws we see certain elements being added in without actually describing who is a citizen or defining who is a citizen. Devyani Prabhat   Where can you find out more about the topics in today’s episode? You can find out more about Devyani's research on her University of Bristol Website (which includes links to many of her publications) and you can follow her on Twitter @ProfDPrabhat. For the themes covered in this episode, we particular recommend her recent paper Unequal Citizenship and Subjecthood: A rose by any other name..? published in @NILegalQ, and her recent edited volume Citizenship in Times of Turmoil? She has also written extensively about the people’s experiences of becoming British citizens in her book Britishness, belonging and citizenship and about several other timely issues relating to citizenship, including this piece about Shamima Begum: what the legal ruling about her return to the UK actually means:  for @ConversationUK and this for @freemovementlaw focused on Britain's unaccompanied migrant children.   For wider reading, this week's recommendation is Reiko Karatani's 2003 book 'Defining British Citizenship'.   Call to action You can subscribe to the podcast on all major podcasting platforms or through our RSS Feed. To find out more about Who do we think we are?, including news, events and resources, visit our blog and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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    27 mins

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