relaxed controls on patrials, subjects whose parents or grandparents were born in the United Kingdom, and gave effective preferential treatment to Commonwealth citizens from white-majority countries.

Outside of the United Kingdom, British subjects already did not have an automatic right to settle. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa had immigration restrictions in place for British subjects from outside their jurisdictions targeted at non-white migrants since the late 19th century. After 1949, non-local British subjects under