UK: Immigration Policies to Tighten - Citizenship Test to be Tougher!

David Cameron in a speech on October 9, 2011 addressed the nation with a promise to crack down on immigrants. The main agenda of the speech was

• Citizenship test to include British History Questions
• The families that desire to sponsor their overseas relatives need to submit financial bonds worth thousands of pounds.

The Prime Minister vowed that the UK Citizenship test will include questions related to British History and made an appeal to public to report suspects of illegal immigration.

The Prime Minister wants to formulate forced marriages as criminal offence was obvious from his key immigration speech text. He made it clear that the Downing Street would fully support Theresa May in rewriting the immigration rules so that the no one can misinterpretations. No immigratnes that need to be deported should reamin protected under the hood of right to family life.

The Prime Minister’s proposal that the famalies who desire to sponsor their overseas relatives in order to settle in UK would need to submit financial bonds worth thousands of pounds invoked a strapping warning from Keith Vaz.

The chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, Keith Vaz said that it will "antagonize settled communities in Britain and enrage our allies such as India… It was shelved before because it was unworkable. A more effective method must be found in order for immigrants to pay for public services."

The prime minister desires real tough action against illegal immigrants in Britain and thus, "We are creating a new national crime agency with a dedicated border policing command which will have responsibility for safeguarding the security of our border," he said. He furthermore stated "I want everyone in the country to help … including by reporting suspected illegal immigrants to our Border Agency through the Crimestoppers phoneline or through the Border Agency website. Together, we will reclaim our borders and send illegal immigrants home."

Though the present citizenship handbook has a dedicated chapter on British history yet the related questions on this topic are not in the actual test. The present test focuses on how British society works, the Queen's ceremonial duties, the elections, etc.

Various polls conducted during last decade revealed the fact that the youth below 30 was not easily able to identify the major figures in British history.

The proposed changes in test would include questions on the “roles and powers of the main institutions of Europe and the benefits system within the UK.”; British customs, traditions, name and dates of each patron saint for all four UK countries as well as the Christian festivals and ceremonies.