Now as Then: The Construction of Structural Barriers to 'Right to Abode' for Racialised Commonwealth Migrants in Britain — A Rapid Review of Contemporary Oppositional Voices

This rapid review synthesises 17 sources from legal scholars, historians, and advocacy organisations to archive opposition to the legislative dismantling of the "right to abode" for racialised Commonwealth migrants in Britain. Tracing policy from 1948 universal subjecthood to the 2026 "earned settlement" reforms, the review documents a bipartisan project of exclusion through racially encoded mechanisms: partiality clauses, tiered citizenship, extended qualifying periods (now reaching 20 years), prohibitive costs (£13,000+ per adult), and mandatory digital eVisas creating a "politics of exhaustion." Stated justifications mask actual drivers: electoral pressures, geopolitical realignment, and racialised public sentiment. The cumulative effect is "permanent temporariness" and "two-tier citizenship," with 1.35 million people facing retroactively applied rules.