Britain has a long tradition of migration both of people leaving to make new lives in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and with other people coming in to Britain to leave persecution or to improve their lives.

Partly the importance that the British public has given to the debates over migration derive from the fact that Britain is an island and has a different outlook on citizenship than other European countries such as France and Germany (Modood, 2005 p. 193). Immigrants have received mixed reactions, some have been welcomed, whilst others have suffered from xenophobia and racism (Young, 2003 p. 246).

How such reactions have affected the debates over migration and the very concept of citizenship itself will be evaluated. As will be discussed below, the existence of racism and cultural diversity have added to the debates on migration due mainly to the impact of immigrants from the New Commonwealth, the former British colonies in Africa, the West Indies, and Asia. As will be discussed below the concept of citizenship alters the significance for debates on migrants, especially in terms of balancing the human rights of immigrants with social and economic obligations expected of them once they have settled in Britain. British governments have, since the 1960s, attempted to control immigration, whilst allowing immigrants the opportunity to acquire British citizenship. In recent years for various reasons the concept of citizenship has received a higher degree of public attention.

The significance of the concept of citizenship upon debates over migration can depend on how citizenship is defined and understood. People will regard citizenship as a concept that can have different levels of acceptance of cultural and ethnic diversity. Some countries are more reluctant than others are when it comes to granting citizenship rights to migrants that are not willing to integrate. For instance Belgium and France are less willing to grant citizenship than Britain (Blommaert and Verschueren, 1998 p. 111). Legally the concept of citizenship is quite a narrow one, a migrant becomes a citizen of their new state once they have met all the requirements to be declared naturalised, or to be issued with a passport or identity papers for that country. A citizen is therefore defined as a member of a state or Commonwealth' (Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 1996 p. 266).

Countries can make the right to citizenship open, or as

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