13 Jun

British Abroad are Second-Class Citizens

“A man without a vote is a man without protection” (Lindon B. Johnson). Today, all British citizens above the age of 18 benefit from a right to vote and as such can voice their concerns in the political arena. All? Not quite. Expatriate British adults lose their voting rights after 15 years abroad and have no representation. This creates both a problem of visibility and protection.

Brexit, a Democratic Threat for British Overseas

The history of democracy is to some extent the story of how the electorate progressively increased; each extension allowing new interests but also new issues to arise in the political arena. In Britain, before 1832, it was estimated that less than 3% of the total population was allowed to vote. Many social reforms during the XIXth century progressively extended voting rights. However, it was not until 1918 that Britain granted universal suffrage, with voting rights for women. In 1969, suffrage was extended to all those aged 18 and above. Finally, in 1985, the “Representation of the People Act 1985” allowed British citizens who were resident outside the United Kingdom to qualify as “overseas electors” in the constituency for which they were last registered, but only for the first five years of their expatriation. This was later increased to 15 years in 2002.

Due to this time limit, it was estimated that up to 3 million Britons living overseas were denied a vote in the last Brexit referendum. The result is that many of those who will be most affected by Brexit were not allowed to vote in the referendum, simply because they exercised their right to live in another country.

When the UK exits the EU in March 2019, not only will British citizens living in European countries be unable to vote in National elections in Britain, but they will no longer have the right to vote in local or European elections either (which they could since 1992 and the Maastricht Treaty), because the UK will no longer be part of the EU. This means that they will become British citizens stripped of any right to vote anywhere in the world!

The Government has repeatedly indicated that it would bring forward a Votes for Life Bill and in October 2016 it published a policy statement, “A democracy that works for everyone: British citizens overseas”, which sets out how the 15 year rule will be removed and how all eligible British citizens who have lived in the UK will be given a lifelong right to vote in Parliamentary elections. The Overseas Electors Bill passed a second reading in the House of Commons in February 2018, but still doesn’t tackle the issue of specific representation for British living abroad. This begs the question as to the future of British citizens’ rights in a post-Brexit era and the evolution of voting rights worldwide.

France as a model?

Overseas voting is a worldwide trend. Today 151 countries have provisions for it, including almost all the democracies (Ireland is one of the very few exceptions) and 13 countries have even implemented constituencies to directly represent expatriates in their home Parliament, including 5 European states.

The French system, shared notably by Italy and Portugal, is rather exceptional. French abroad have the right to vote from their country of residence in presidential elections, national referendums and European elections since 1976-1977, and in Parliamentary elections since 2008.

French expatriates also benefit from a substantial political representation in their home country, one of the largest in the world. Since 1946 they are represented in the Senate (the upper house of the Parliament) and since 2008 in the National Assembly (the lower house). In the 2012 legislative election, French living abroad elected for the first time their MPs in eleven immense extraterritorial constituencies. French abroad further have consultative representative bodies, both locally (130 consular councils) and at the global level (Assembly of French Citizens Abroad). They are thereby not only visible but protected. They keep their rights as citizens in the French political system, and can therefore influence policy and voice their own issues as expatriates (taxes, pensions, education, consular presence…). They are a specific and significant proportion of the electorate so much so that policy makers can’t ignore them.

Citizenship = Vote = Representation

Why therefore do British abroad continue to be second-class citizens? Do British citizens who may only have British citizenship not deserve a say in British politics? Many of them still have a strong interest in British politics because of its putative dramatic impact on their own lives and that of their relatives, of which Brexit is a very clear example. Giving them a right to vote in the latest constituency they lived in whilst being in the UK is non-sensical since they haven’t lived there for over a decade! What if Britain were to set up a (small) number of overseas constituencies where British expatriates would directly elect MPs representing them, able to defend their interests, and to promote in the Commons the best policies that exist in other countries? Would the course of history change? Or would it simply mean that British expatriates would be more visible in British political life? As Britain prepares to exit the EU, will it seize the opportunity to create a stronger link with its overseas citizens and reinforce the global dimension of the British nation?

Dr. Tudi KERNALEGENN is Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Louvain, in Belgium, specialist of migration and citizenship issues in Western Europe

Dr. Raphaela KITSON-PANTANO is a Euroenthusiast and Director of Yes You Can Consulting, www.yycc.eu