ImmigrationU.K.'s citizenship tests act as barriers to naturalization

Published 10 February 2016

Citizenship tests are requiring immigrants to become “super-citizens” and act as barriers to naturalization, according to new research. In the first academic article to consider the experience of people taking the tests, researchers found that they provided immigrants with little useful or practical knowledge and were considered disparaging by requiring them to know things that citizens-by-birth would not.

 

Citizenship tests are requiring immigrants to become “super-citizens” and act as barriers to naturalization, according to new research from the University of Manchester.

In the first academic article to consider the experience of people taking the tests, sociologist Dr. Bridget Byrne found that they provided immigrants with little useful or practical knowledge and were considered disparaging by requiring them to know things that citizens-by-birth would not.

U Manchester reports that “Testing Times,” published in the journal Sociology, looked at interviews with thorty new citizens living all over the United Kingdom. The research argues that the tests and the nature of the knowledge required to pass them serve to retain new citizens in a position of less-than-equal citizenship.

Byrne said: “Far from aiding integration, new citizens felt that, in sitting the tests, they had to prove their worth against citizens-by-birth many of whom might be unlikely to pass the tests themselves. As such, they were left feeling that they were facing barriers to their naturalization.

The design of the test does not recognize how those who are required to take it already have a good understanding of British society and culture. It also fails to recognize the other attachments they may have to Britain, for example through links forged in empire.”

Byrne concluded that new citizens viewed the test as a way of reassuring existing citizens of their fitness to be citizens — as opposed to a rite of passage earned by new Brits.

In addition, sections on history and statistics (such as the percentages of different population groups in the United Kingdom) were deemed to have little practical use and could safely be forgotten, according to those who were interviewed.

Byrne added: “This research concludes real concerns about citizenship testing in the United Kingdom and a wider EU trend of raising the barriers to naturalization.

New citizens had high levels of awareness of immigration debates in the United Kingdom and anti-immigration sentiment and some found it particularly difficult to accept that even though they had passed their test they were still seen as a “dumb foreigner’.”

— Rad more in B. Byrne, “Testing Times: The Place of the Citizenship Test in the U.K. Immigration Regime and New Citizens Responses to it,” Sociology (2 February 2016) (DOI: 10.1177/0038038515622908)