Recognition After All: Irish Citizens in Post-Brexit Immigration Law

This article is concerned with the position of Irish citizens in British immigration law, both historically,

and once the free movement of persons regime ceases. Drawing on legal and archival material, it traces

the status of Irish citizens in British immigration law since the establishment of the Irish state in 1921-

1922. Until the early 1960s, Irish citizens were treated as British subjects, or as if they were, and

therefore benefitted from right to enter and reside in the United Kingdom, and immunity from

deportation from it. When the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 and Immigration Act 1971

introduced immigration restrictions and deportation for British subjects from the colonies and

Commonwealth, the policy was to exempt Irish citizens in practice. Although the common travel area

appears to have been the primary reason for that policy, it was highly controversial at the time, as it

reinforced the view that that legislation was racially discriminatory. The legacy of that controversy,

however, was inadequate provision for Irish citizens in immigration law after 1 January 1973,

something which was masked by the availability of EU free movement rights as an alternative. These

inadequacies are being addressed as the free movement of persons regime ceases, through an

exemption from requirements to obtain leave to enter and remain in the Immigration and Social

Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill. It is linked to the wider normalisation of the two states’

relationship, which has enabled full recognition of the established patterns of migration and mobility

between them.