Untangling the history of Chinese naturalisation in the British settler colonial world

From the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese migrants to the British settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand and Canada sought to cement their place in the colonial community by becoming naturalised British subjects. In New South Wales, for example, around 950 Chinese men were naturalised before it was prohibited by law in 1888. Naturalisation could have significant implications for Chinese colonists and their families, particularly concerning rights of mobility and residence.

In this paper I will discuss my current book project – tentatively titled Rights, Race and Mobility: Naturalised Chinese in the British Settler Colonial World – which is a transnational history of Chinese naturalisation in colonial New South Wales, New Zealand and British Columbia between 1860 and 1920.

The book aims to explore the interplay of race and nationality in the British settler colonies, combining biographies of individuals, case studies of key historical moments, and detailed analysis of naturalisation law and policy to provide a new history of how, why and in what circumstances Chinese migrants became British subjects across the Empire.

Presenter

Dr Kate Bagnall
Senior Lecturer in Humanities (History) at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. Before joining UTAS in 2019, Kate held an ARC DECRA Fellowship at the University of Wollongong.

This series is an opportunity for our HRC Visiting Fellows to present and receive feedback on the research they are working on. In 2022 , Visiting Fellows are exploring the theme of Mobilities