British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act (1914)

British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act (1914)

Mix-d: Museum: Timeline
Mix-d:
2012-07-10

With the increase of the minority ethnic population in Britain from the turn of the century, popular concerns about interracial relationships grew. The 1914 British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act meant that not only did ‘aliens’ – that is, foreign-born residents, have to carry an alien registration card, but British women across the Empire who married such men automatically lost their British nationality. Such was the case for Emily Ah Foo, a Liverpudlian woman who married Stanley, a Chinese seaman. There were no such restrictions for British men; in fact, any foreign woman marrying a British subject automatically became British…

Read the entire timeline section and view the video clip here.

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