DeSouza campaign confuses identity and citizenship

The campaign led by Emma DeSouza is gaining support, but I believe it confuses identity and citizenship.
By Joshua Lowry
Published 23rd May 2020, 09:18 BST
Emma DeSouza last year with her husband Jake, who have both been fighting a long-running battle with the UK government over immigration and citizenshipEmma DeSouza last year with her husband Jake, who have both been fighting a long-running battle with the UK government over immigration and citizenship
Emma DeSouza last year with her husband Jake, who have both been fighting a long-running battle with the UK government over immigration and citizenship

What is the difference between the two?

I describe myself as Christian, British and Irish without any contradictory feeling, despite only one of those terms being reflected in my legal status as a UK citizen.

Identities are something which develop over time as one lives and learns, it is not the same as citizenship.

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Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

Your identity can exist in isolation. No-one decides it for you, it depends on your personal history and beliefs and values.

But citizenship is something we share with everyone who has the same citizenship. It grants us rights and protections and other countries recognise you as being part of the national community that granted it to you.

I’ve lived all my life in that national community, I was born in a hospital, built and staffed by that community, drive on roads built by it, went to schools paid by it and now pay my taxes into the same United Kingdom communal funds that pay for our schools, our hospitals and police.

To say that anyone who is automatically entitled to all these benefits should automatically be considered been part of our national community seems to be quite jarring.

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Our access to citizenship should not be treated any differently from other parts of the same nation, because of someone else’s personal identity.

Supporters of Emma DeSouza quote the Belfast Agreement, but that is a document that first and foremost confirms Northern Ireland’s position within the national community (the UK).

By all means reject your citizenship now if you want to, burn the flag you are giving up if you wish to do so, it makes a greater point to give something away than claim you never had it.

But do not demand I be treated unequally to my fellow countrymen in regards to my automatic UK citizenship.

Do not pick apart the agreement that allows us to find a path together peacefully.

Joshua Lowry, Bessbrook

Related topics:Northern IrelandSupporters