‘Enemy of the state’: citizenship deprivation and the problem of returning foreign terrorist fighters

This paper analyses the UK’s law and practice of citizenship deprivation as a counterterrorism measure to deal with returning foreign terrorist fighters. What used to be an “exceptional” measure has become increasingly institutionalised to give the executive broad powers even at the risk of making an individual stateless. The paper shows how the construction of the terrorist “other” and the resulting politics of fear lead to a productive relationship between law and securitisation: the executive is using law as a tool to justify its decisions in the process of securitisation, and securitisation becomes the driver for legal changes that institutionalises the executive’s power over its citizens. The paper uses the case of Shamima Begum and her attempts to return to argue that citizenship has become a securitised and racialised concept that is conditional on ill-defined criteria of what it means to be a “good” British citizen. Citizenship has shifted from being a right to being a privilege, contingent on the Home Secretary’s assessment of whether an individual adheres to “British values”. The fact that this only affects those of foreign heritage, means that there are different classes of citizenship which raises important questions of fairness and equality.