The musings of a juggling mother

Rants & raves about life as a woman today, juggling work, home, kids, family, life the universe & everything.

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Monday, October 31, 2005

Are you a worthy citizen?

Finally the UK Government has decided to bring in a citizenship test for new immigrants. I am all in favour of immigration, but I do feel that if you come to live in a country (or even just to visit), you should respect the laws and culture in place. You should certainly know the laws, morality & language if you wish to become a citizen. Each new group of immigrants will bring their own traditions, skills, foods etc with them, which always get amalgamated into the general culture, but they still need to live within the society that is already here.

Anyway, I got 13 out of 14, which is pretty good, but I'm not totally sure they're asking the right questions....

posted by Juggling Mother @ 1:12 pm  

7 Comments:

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 1:48:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    i got 7/20 and i was born in england in 1981 and i have lived here all my life. i am supposedly considered intelligent and worldly wise!!! maybe english knowledge doesn't apply in my part of somerset. after all everyone things it is a part of devon!!

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 2:09:00 pm, Blogger Juggling Mother said…

    It makes you wonder what the pass mark will be doesn't it.

    it also reminds me of a joke my mother used to tell regularly about a nice Jewish boy who bought a girl home to meet his parents. After quizzing her on every aspect of her & their lives for hours, and discussing cultural opinions & child-rearing concepts the mother turned to her son & said she was a lovely girl, and a welcome addition to their family. she then turned to the girl and asked when she converted to judaism. The girl asked how the mother knew she was a convert & the mother replied that no normal English Jew would be able to speak fluent Hebrew & know the whole of the Torah!

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 2:33:00 pm, Blogger Aginoth said…

    I got 14 / 14, but some dodgy and debatable questions in there, the book they're based on must be full of dubious info.

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 2:48:00 pm, Blogger Paste said…

    I got 10 as I knew nothing about saints days or Father Christmas!

    I feel sure that the problem with imigration in this and every other country is that whilst fair, intelligent, sensible (call it what you will) people are rarely intrinsically racist, ie, they will not be racist against a single person of another ethnic origin, they are very concerned when they see just how little integration there is in this country.
    What I'm tring to say is that if you met a coloured man or woman at a party you would have to be very racist to dislike them purely for their colour but if you happened to drive through parts of Birmingham or Bradford and could see no evidence of being in the UK at all then many people would at the least feel unease about this and to my mind this is not being racist. Integration is surely mixing in with the indiginous population, whilst rrtaining your own identity, not creating enclaves within that population?

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 5:30:00 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    Well I only got 10 but then I'm barely British, despite having been born here :-)

    I know what you mean Dave about the segregation but that isn't perhaps a bad thing intitially, come to a strange country find your own community and community support networks, its later 10 or so years after that community has been established when there's still no/minimal intergration FROM EITHER SIDE that it becomes an issue. Walk through St Paul's in Bristol and its easy to count the number of white faces on one hand but for the most part no white person i know has ever been seriously harrassed or threatened in the area (I'm sure there are exceptions my point is that its not perhaps as predominante as one might think). People are just too afraid/ opinion has been to biased by media/scare stories to try. And if 'ethnic' communities don't feel they are being reached out to its not surprising that they can grow more insular.

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 6:25:00 pm, Blogger craziequeen said…

    You got 6 right!

    0-5: Seat in Heathrow arrivals.... 6-10: Seat on the district council......11-13: Seat in Parliament.....14: Seat on the throne
    [packs bag]

    and I'm bloody English! well, some English.....some Scottish...and some Cornish!

    cq

     

  • At Monday, October 31, 2005 9:39:00 pm, Blogger craziequeen said…

    My dad would probably score the best - and he's Polish...well, naturalised British :-)

    cq

     

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