Citizenship Test changes to only further alienate immigrants
2nd August 2012
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Home Secretary Theresa May's announcement in July to overhaul the British Citizenship Test led me to consider how strongly I can boast about my standing within my country of birth.
After some initial complacency, with surely only once outcome possible in my mind as I entered the test, it was soon replaced by sheer amazement at my lack of knowledge. Much head scratching and several shots in the dark later, I scored a very mediocre 11. Out of 24. Whilst this was a resounding failure, many of the questions posed to me I found puzzling, handing me no insight into life in Britain, nor aiding a potential integration into my new society. This has supplied me ammunition for my defence when UK border control inevitably knock down my door in a few minutes.
For example, I'm not entirely sure of the relevance of the number of under 19s currently living in the UK on an incoming British Citizen. Similarly, a true or false answer based around the location of the majority of immigrants to the UK in the 1980s left me entirely baffled as to the objective of this test. Not exactly tackling the big issues of life in 21st Century Britain. However, amongst the occasional question that can only have been plucked from a Google search engine, there is a basic structure of well directed questions, which when answered correctly, can provide a nugget of potentially very useful information to budding UK citizens. Categories such as what is required to apply for a job, who can receive free prescriptions and educational questions can only provide a good starting base for incoming immigrants in what is surely a tricky transitional period.

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