Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder if this is really happening? parents are being asked to confirm if their kids are British born.

344 replies

someonestolemynick · 06/10/2016 13:04

A few messages popped up on social media today by parents whose school asked them to confirm if the child in question is foreign born. One friend said this was being done by all schools today.
I don't have kids and am an EU national.
I have been disappointed by the referendum result but have adopted a "Wait and see" approach.
Yesterday's announcements of companies having to list foreign employees coupled with today's rumours is really freaking me out.

Have you been asked today to confirm your child's nationality by their school? Aibu to be fucking terrified?

OP posts:
AVY1 · 06/10/2016 14:38

They did this for a period in the 80s where British born children of mixed nationality were not (and still can not) have British passports. I have a feeling that is the generation that were recently forced on to a plane to Jamaica and now can not appeal as they have nothing to prove they are British. Someone very close to me who had two mixed nationality children is very quickly ensuring they have British passports.

For school census reasons fine. But I think it would be naive to think this wasn't a targeted campaign to find a large number of people that can be deported.

Blue4ever · 06/10/2016 14:47

I think the data collected was about the child's ethnicity, which was optional. Now, it is the first time that the government is specifically asking for the child's country of birth. Schools may (or may not) have collected this information in the past, but it is correct that it's the first time the school census is asking schools to provide them with this information. Many schools will hav the data somewhere in their records, but some hav never officially asked for it.

Yes, the census is post Brexit, even if some schools may have collected the data for other purposes in the past.

I am personally worried that asking for country of birth of school children, in conjunction with the announcement that employers will have to list foreign workers, may lead to more division. Headlines in many newspapers are dreadful, very divisive and hostile. It gives ammunition to a minority of already racist people to become even more active. It does make me cringe, but I don't want to be accused of hysteria because I am not hysterical about it. Just worried about what it will mean in the real world. It will create even more division.

Yokohamajojo · 06/10/2016 14:48

The logistics of deporting people will be a bit nightmarish though won't it? I am from another EU county and have been here for 20 years, my DCs are british not dual, my husband is British and I have never claimed any other benefits than child benefit. If they are to deport me what will happen to my family? it's going to be so complicated and I do believe they will give people in my situation Indefinite leave to remain. I don't have the £1000+ that it costs to apply for a British passport.

shovetheholly · 06/10/2016 14:53

I find this absolutely terrifying. What the hell is happening to this country?

Loads of my friends are EU nationals, with kids. They are so hurt and upset by everything. It's just awful Sad

Oliversmumsarmy · 06/10/2016 14:57

I was asked this for dcs school years ago. I don't know what the fuss is. It isn't a new thing as far as I am aware

MuseumOfCurry · 06/10/2016 15:00

My kids' schools have always asked for birth certificates. Thought that was normal?

phillipp · 06/10/2016 15:02

I find this absolutely terrifying. What the hell is happening to this country?

What is happening? They have asked these questions for yeasts.

I know loads of eu nationals, my best friend is from outside the EU. Non of them are terrified, especially over this.

As a remained I am embarrassed about how some pro EU people are acting.

SuburbanRhonda · 06/10/2016 15:09

I have had this too. The school already know this information as its been previously given. They are British born. I filed it with the home school agreement in the bin.

How very mature of you.

SpaceUnicorn · 06/10/2016 15:20

Loads of my friends are EU nationals, with kids. They are so hurt and upset by everything. It's just awful sad

And they've never been asked for this information ever before? This is entirely new to them, and to you?

amicissimma · 06/10/2016 15:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mollie123 · 06/10/2016 15:28

holly
find this absolutely terrifying. What the hell is happening to this country?

loads of my friends are EU nationals, with kids. They are so hurt and upset by everything. It's just awful sad
I would suggest you find out the facts before being terrified - no-one is being deported, the idea of knowing who is working who is not a UK national is just the same as the information being held in other parts of your beloved EU
I am getting really fed up with the scare-mongering, over-reaction about possibilities.

Manumission · 06/10/2016 15:29

Thought that was normal?

It is.

shovetheholly · 06/10/2016 15:30

I don't have kids, so I have no idea what is normal for schools. I am worried that this data is being collected in the current climate, because it IS new to me to me to hear politicians like Amber Rudd channelling Mein Kampf.

Buck3t · 06/10/2016 15:32

It is interesting on this forum, how people are being called stupid for having simple (imo) logical thoughts. Based on the history of Europe, we cannot trust (blindly) that something is done benevolently, nefariously or just for box ticking purposes.

I have never filled out the ethnicity section in a form. Why should I? What has it got to do with the price of bread? From very early I was told by my parents not to fill it in. But that was based on their experiences. Just like people with certain types of names get job interviews (mine is Scottish - I'm clearly not a traditional looking Scot, especially since I'm a proud Londoner), people with weird complicated names don't. So let's not pretend having this information doesn't alert people to that in advance.

I think it borders on naive to say 'what's the problem if you have nothing to hide?', when the recent example is given to you re Jamaican deportations. And yes, the rise of Nazi germany didn't come out of the blue. As a black person I will look on this cautiously, cause we're usually targetted first (lack of imagination, laziness). But we'll see.

Though I haven't answered (it was optional and I forgot), presumably they have access to most of these details anyway. I do also think, in a country /island such as this it is more than prudent to make sure the people using our services freely are entitled and those that are not pay - not asking anyone to go home, but pay for what isn't yours is all.

B

Manumission · 06/10/2016 15:33

Have you read Mein Kampf? Hmm

Amber Rudd is annoying etc but she's not Hitler.

OurBlanche · 06/10/2016 15:36

20 years ago I collected data like that. It was used to allocate specific funding for relatively under represented sections of society. I still work, part time, in one health centre that exists purely because of that infomration!

All that has happened is that Brexit is giving the media a chance to use these decades old questions scare monger amongst people who have never met such forms before!

Fucking infuriating, yes. But not terrifying!

Oh, and the data I collected was via EU forms, squillions of them. The school forms still are too! So, if you really are terrified at the thought of how the data will be used, you should have voted OUT! Grin

roundaboutthetown · 06/10/2016 15:37

It is definitely a new addition to the usual form that is sent home by my children's schools every year and not optional in the way questions about ethnicity always have been - I forgot to complete that bit on ds1's form and it was returned to me with those sections highlighted. As it is a new addition, I think it is therefore wrong to claim it is the same old, same old...

Manumission · 06/10/2016 15:39

Based on the history of Europe, we cannot trust (blindly) that something is done benevolently, nefariously or just for box ticking purposes

Fine, let's base our trust on the history of the UK.

The Jamaican issue and Thatcher's early 80s legislative change that diluted Jus Soli are quite a specific case of Nationality Law niggledliness that don't have much connection to this situation.

OurBlanche · 06/10/2016 15:39

And, as Buck3 said, I have filled them in as they would ant me to! I have always objected to the lack of "White British" so I add that in the Other column.

And I calm to be a Jedi Master... though I feel the need to progress, so will need a new religious title soon.

I have claimed my place of birth to be 'in a hospital'

... and many other stupidities, entirely depending on the form, my mood, the reason for filling the bloody thing in in the first place!

OurBlanche · 06/10/2016 15:40

Sorry, that should be White English... If you can be British, Welsh, Socttish and/or Irish I want to be English, So if it ain't their, I add it - and it usually is NOT there!

shovetheholly · 06/10/2016 15:41

But just because data is collected for one reason does not mean that this is the sole use to which it can be put. What I'm scared about is that I think the climate around us is changing to the extent that I can see the possibility that data like this being used in extremely discriminatory ways in future.

I didn't actually say Amber Rudd was Hitler. Her moustache isn't that bad. But for the record, yes I have read Mein Kampf, in German.

Buck3t · 06/10/2016 15:45

Just a thought Manumission
Hitler wasn't "Hitler" until he was. If you catch my drift.

SlottedSpoon · 06/10/2016 15:46

Wait. It's not to confirm they're British born. It's to confirm what their nationality is and where they were born. There's a difference.

You'll be telling us that you fear the non-British born children are going to be made to wear yellow stars on their uniform next. Hmm

titchy · 06/10/2016 15:47

Buck3t -and others - the Equality and Human Rights commission collect the ethnicity data you put on forms and use that data to lobby for equal access and representation of BME people in the UK.

Equally Stonewall use data on sexuality for the same purposes.

If you are BME, or non-heterosexual or disabled or female etc and don't disclose these you weaken the position of organisations who are there to ensure you are represented.

Worth bearing in mind...

SlottedSpoon · 06/10/2016 15:47

Sorry that didn't make sense, there was a sentence missing in the middle.

I was going to say I agree with the PP I quoted and that some of you do love to get your knickers in a twist and create a drama out of nothing much.