How old was Mary, Queen of Scots, when she took the throne? Who won the Battle of Killiecrankie? Unless you know the answers, you’re not fit to be a British citizen. Of course you may be one already, but for people who take the Home Office’s Life in the UK test in the hope of getting citizenship, this knowledge is judged essential. The manual for budding Brits was revamped in 2013. Practical questions like how to find a doctor or apply for a job were stripped out. Now it tests the ‘values and principles at the heart of being British’.
After four years there has still been no official government evaluation of the current test. But an evaluation has just been done by Leah Bassel and her colleagues at Leicester University. Not surprisingly, those whose first language isn’t English and aren’t familiar with computers find the online test forbidding. Many migrants question its usefulness and see it as an instrument of immigration control. As a result, many feel negative about gaining citizenship, the opposite of what the government says it wants to achieve.
