The Bunker – News without the nonsense Citizen Pain: Would you pass to be British?
The Life in the UK Test is the ultimate barrier to becoming a British citizen. But is it working – and how could we change it? Since its launch in 2001 the test has been criticised for failing to achieve its goal of integration, and making it harder for people to become citizens. Thom Brooks, author of Reforming the UK’s Citizenship Test: Building Bridges, Not Barriers, joins Yasmeen Serhan in the Bunker to ask: is it time for a new approach?
- “It’s not so much about building bridges, it’s about creating barriers on the arbitrary basis of a memory test.”
- “Other countries do not require a knowledge test like this to be a resident of a country.”
- “Americans and Australians - mostly native English speakers - have a pass rate of 97%. When it comes to Turkey, Iraq you see pass rates of less than 50%. There’s a big difference in different nationalities.”
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Written and presented by Yasmeen Serhan. Producer: Jet Gerbertson. Assistant producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Bunker music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Artwork by James Parrett. Group editor: Andrew Harrison.
THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production
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