SYG Member
The Scottish Young Greens work to increase the engagement of all young people with the political process and remove the barriers in place that prevent young people becoming active citizens.
Children who are born in the United Kingdom to parents who do not hold British Citizenship or Indefinite Leave to Remain are not born British. They can apply to register as a British citizen in their own right after being born and living in the UK for 10 years, or after having spent the majority of their lives in the UK.
Becoming a citizen has many benefits, not least the right to vote and participate actively in the United Kingdom’s democratic system. The current cost to register as a British citizen for a child is £973.
It costs the Home Office only £386 to process each application, meaning they make £586 profit per child registered. This is unjustifiable. Compared to other European countries, this fee is astronomical. The cost to register as a citizen is 80 euros in Belgium, 55 euros in France and just 51 euros in Germany.
This is a deliberate policy to disenfranchise children in the United Kingdom. This policy prevents children from becoming equal and active citizens.
The Home Office policy of a hostile environment for migrants is in full force and targeting children who have grown up in the United Kingdom and see themselves as British (or Scottish, Welsh, English or Northern Irish as the case may be). The current fee should be urgently reviewed and reduced to prevent the Home Office from profiting from children’s citizenship applications.
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