Jon Bright (London, OK): I was hovering by the bar at the above named Manifesto Club night yesterday evening at Islington's Old Queens Head. The idea of the evening was rather a good one - to let people take the 'Citizenship Test', which must be passed by everyone wishing to become a British citizen, or apply for indefinite leave to remain. As we sat in the all new smoke free environs of the Queen's Head turret bar, fielding the Home Office's citizenship questions, two things became apparent.
The first was that the citizenship test makes for a cracking pub quiz. 24 multiple choice questions based on general knowledge about Britain, some easy, some guessable, some downright impossible - it was a perfect mix. What is the population of Wales? What is the role of a party whip? What type of constitution does the UK have? (should be able to get that one!). It was extremely entertaining.
The second was that it is a fiendishly difficult thing to pass. You needed 75% (or 18 correct) to get one of the certificates the Manifesto Club had specially printed for the occasion. In a room of over 50 100 people (many operating in teams) no-one was able to get the 18 required (I managed only 15 - and I must admit I've read the book it is based on). Everyone immediately started making the same chuckling joke <!--more-->about being thrown out of the country, but the club's point was made - if current British citizens can't pass the test, why should immigrants have to?
I'm sympathetic to this point of view (my failing grade gives me little other option). But I do think this test is slightly misinterpreted by most, the Manifesto Club included. It is NOT a barrier to entry - you can take the test as many times as you need to pass, up to once a week. It does cost money (£20 for the book, £34 a time for the test) - but when you compare this to the overall cost of emigrating to the UK, the % extra is relatively small. No-one at the Queens Head passed - but then again few people there had studied the book as you would if it mattered. Other factors being equal, I doubt this test has turned back many people who want to be British citizens.
What's the point of it then? I see it as something similar to a driving test. It's not a device to stop people from ever entering - but rather to make sure they have learnt specific bits of knowledge before they do. It's a tool of 'socialization' if you like, it goes hand in hand with citizenship lessons at school and citizenship ceremonies for new citizens. I'm not going to start quoting too much Foucault, but the neoliberal state has been becoming increasingly interventionist in more aspects of our lives and I see this as an intervention at the level of identity. It's a long way off the campaigns of thought reform Orwell depicted in 1984; but it's informed by the same principle. British identity, once so integral to the idea of Britain, is being stripped away - no-one knows what it means to be British any more. A new identity is needed to take its place, and the liberal model of citizenship is the only thing that can be found (see my post below).
Of course it's cackhanded, superficial: no-one thinks a 24 question test is going to turn everyone into model citizens. All attempts at top down identity construction are doomed to be laughed at in once smoky pubs. But I see it as the beginning of a trend: what will be really interesting is what this test looks like in twenty years time, and what else comes with it, because the problem it is trying to tackle won't go away.
Comments
I recently took this test in the process of becoming a citizen (my ceremony is in two days), and had no troubles at all. It is basically a glorified reading comprehension test to test one's understanding of English at the GCSE level, only disguised as a test about the UK. Given the alternative to taking the test is taking an ESOL course with a citizenship component, the emphasis is really on understanding the language, not on how much trivia we know about the country (although that bit is sort of fun). I have had no issue at all with the requirement to demonstrate my functional fluency in English -- although if they had accepted my English degree as proof, that would have saved me some time and money.
Becoming British in any genuine sense is more than an administrative process because a nation is more than a lawyers' contract.
Learning to speak English is one thing, because it is enabling. But the heart of citizenship should be entitlement not socialisation: it gives you the right to be different within the law.
Of course, this also creates a form of constitutional patriotism. But not one that seeks to make you the same in your culture.
What am I talking about? Well, an example explains a lot. A older friend of mine, who has now died after a great life, lived and worked in America and wanted to stay British. But after Nixon prolonged the Vietnam war he felt he had to vote. He became a US citizen and when he was sworn in the presiding officer told everyone they now had the right to make their opinions heard. This was in a time of war! It made him loyal to America that he was welcomed as a potential enemy of the government.
The US is the home of loyalty oaths but these are against the spirit of the constitution.
The same has to apply to a British process, whatever tests there are to become a British that becoming needs to enhance the freedom of our future fellow citizens not restrict it.
Anthony
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I wonder how many British born Citizens would pass the life in the UK test?
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