Submission to Senate Inquiry into the Citizenship Legislation Amendment Bill

This document is a submission made by the APS in 2017 to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into Australian Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Requirements for Australian Citizenship and Other Measures) Bill 2017

This submission drew on evidence that links social inclusion to better health, wellbeing and social cohesion. Emphasising that citizenship sets the tone for membership in a society, and signals to the community what it means to be ‘Australian’, the submission argues that attaining citizenship not only provides migrants with political and legal rights, but also provides a sense of belonging to the community, and is thus a form of social inclusion.

On this basis, the APS is concerned that the proposed changes to citizenship (namely extending the waiting period for permanent residents from one year to “at least four years” before eligibility for citizenship, increasing the English language requirement to qualify for Australian citizenship and the widening Ministerial discretion to deny citizenship in individual immigration cases) risk undermining the strong history of citizenship as a form of social inclusion and social cohesion.    

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