Kafilat Oduneye knows only too well the cost of wanting to be British.
All of the Nigerian mother’s four children were born in the UK, but so far she has had to pay £6,000 to register three of them as UK citizens. The fourth is still too young. Currently, a child’s right to citizenship depends on their parents’ status.
Finding the money has left Kafilat in debt, but she says making sure her children are British is worth it.
“Those kids, they are the same, they are the same as other children, like other children. They are born here.
“They are the same children like Mr Boris (Johnson), because he was born here too. And if that kind of opportunity is being given to him, it should be given to other children.”
Kafilat’s daughter Ismat is now a British citizen. The 11-year-old said the problems her mother faced have left her ambivalent about the process.
“I was happy about it, but like the struggle that we had to go through to get it…I didn’t think it was something happy.
“So I was happy, but I wasn’t happy about it at the same time.”
Allowing children born in the UK to be British by birth right is one of the key recommendations in a report by an eight-member independent inquiry team looking into UK citizenship policy.
It also examined the cost of becoming British and citizenship’s role as a source of pride.
In its findings it said acquiring UK citizenship is prohibitively expensive and beyond the reach of people such as frontline key workers. The cost exceeds the price of becoming a citizen in Australia, Canada, France and the US combined.
Families, in particular, can face a bill of several thousand pounds in registration and lawyers’ costs.
The report also says that becoming a British citizen should be “something we can all be proud of”.
It suggests using iconic venues such as Edinburgh Castle and Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium to conduct citizenship ceremonies rather than “hide” them in council offices, and the Queen and prime minister should hold an annual ceremony at which “specialist contributors” are awarded honorary citizenship.
Recipients could include the doctors who treated Boris Johnson during his COVID infection and the scientists behind the Oxford vaccine.
Tory MP Alberto Costa, who chaired the inquiry, said: “We should encourage those who want to take citizenship and celebrate when people decide to become British. It’s a common bond that we share.
“Other countries use this opportunity to celebrate who they are as a nation, while we hide our ceremonies away in council offices. That needs to change.
“An annual ceremony, where the Queen or the prime minister awards citizenship to a small number of individuals who have made a special contribution to the UK, would underline the value of citizenship, both to new citizens and to our society as a whole.
“High-profile citizenship ceremonies at Old Trafford, Edinburgh Castle or the Palace of Westminster would also send a clear message that this is something we can all be proud of.”
The idea to reward “specialist contributors” mirrors the situation in countries like France, where Mamoudou Gassama, from Mali – aka Spiderman – was awarded French citizenship in 2018 after he climbed several storeys of a building to rescue a child dangling from a balcony.
Canada has awarded honorary citizenship to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama among others.