Citizenship, Ethnicity and Identity

Abstract

There have been few studies of citizenship as an identity. This article explores citizenship as an identity among British Pakistanis in Bradford after the ‘riot’ in 2001, using qualitative data. The 2001 ‘riots’, the political successes of the British National Party and the events after September 11 pushed British-Pakistani Muslims into the forefront of national political conflicts around citizenship, national identity and allegiance to the state. Through the analysis of interviews with both first- and second-generation British Pakistanis we examine how citizenship as a mode of identity is contextualized by them in relation to national identity, Islam and ethnicity. We identify the two generations’ different ‘citizenship identities’. The second generation have a strong British identity as ‘British citizens’ with the ‘natural rights’ of a British-born citizen. In contrast the first-generation migrants from Pakistan express identities as ‘denizens’, living but not belonging in a foreign country, who remain because their children are now ‘British’.