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Prized Englishness of my Arab wife Prized Englishness of my Arab wife
(2 days later)
Nationality is complicated, as Tim Crowe discovered when dealing with the Home Office. Plus a letter from Austen LynchNationality is complicated, as Tim Crowe discovered when dealing with the Home Office. Plus a letter from Austen Lynch
I consider myself English/British (Letters, 6 March), but appear to be less so than my naturalised wife, who is originally Palestinian/Jordanian. When emigrating from the UK to Dubai 30 years ago, I asked the Home Office what would happen if our children were born in Dubai. It said that I would not be able to pass on my UK nationality to them, but my wife, as a naturalised national, could. The rationale was that I was born in Malaysia and inherited my nationality from two British parents born in Thailand and India respectively. While I lived from age three to 30 in England and can trace a family tree in England back more than 400 years, could my children have been stateless were it not for the Englishness of my Arab wife? I consider myself English/British (Letters, 6 March), but appear to be less so than my naturalised wife, who is originally Palestinian/Jordanian. When emigrating from the UK to Dubai 30 years ago, I asked the Home Office what would happen if our children were born in Dubai. It said that I would not be able to pass on my UK nationality to them, but my wife, as a naturalised national, could. The rationale was that I was born in Malaysia and inherited my nationality from two British parents born in Thailand and India respectively. While I lived from age three to 30 in England and can trace a family tree in England back more than 400 years, could my children have been stateless were it not for the Englishness of my Arab wife?Tim CrowePiltdown, East Sussex
The English and their language aren’t from Britain at all. The Angles were one of many tribes of migrants who arrived in boats. In their case, from the Jutland peninsula, shaped like a fish-hook, or “angol”, from the Indo-European “ank” – to bend.Austen LynchGarstang, Lancashire
Tim Crowe
Piltdown, East Sussex
The English and their language aren’t from Britain at all. The Angles were one of many tribes of migrants who arrived in boats. In their case, from the Jutland peninsula, shaped like a fish-hook, or “angol”, from the Indo-European “ank” – to bend.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
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