Migration and Security in the Global Age: Diaspora Communities and Conflict by Feargal Cochrane

Author:Feargal Cochrane [Cochrane, Feargal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Civil Rights, Peace, Human Rights
ISBN: 9780415587754
Google: RtTtQwAACAAJ
Goodreads: 14869491
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-01-15T11:13:07+00:00

Practices of securitisation since 9/11

Within the UK, a political and cultural shift in attitudes towards migration has accompanied changes in the legal, administrative and formal security environment. Put simply, this has moved from efforts to promote multiculturalism to attempts to encourage integration and build British national cohesion, the introduction of the Life in the United Kingdom Test, being a textbook example. Taking and passing this computer test became a requirement for permanent residence in the UK, following the Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act of 2002. In addition to requiring a particular proficiency level in the English language, it also framed a narrative of British political institutions, cultural practices and social dynamics that required some degree of local knowledge. The ‘handbook’ from which the questions were developed, was critiqued in some quarters for its generalisation and conservative bias, a stereotypical ‘official’ narrative of Britishness, based on dead white males, that emphasised heroic political leaders such as Winston Churchill and literary figures such as William Shakespeare. With its typical pithy genius for headlines, the UK tabloid newspaper, the Sun, summed it up on 2 July 2012 with the headline: ‘Know the Bard … or you’re barred.’ The political logic behind this was expressed by a Home Office spokesperson, who commented; ‘putting our culture and history at the heart of the citizenship test will help improve community cohesion and integration’. Leaving aside the point that there was no agreed definition on what ‘our’ culture and history was, or how it should be defined, the policy driver here was linked to the belief that ‘good’ migrants would integrate or assimilate into the official narrative, (or the ‘dominant discourse’ as post-structuralists would have it). Writing in the New Statesman magazine, Mehdi Hassan commented that the narrative of Britain’s imperial history presented a glossy view in ‘… a deeply disturbing document that rewrites British colonial history and presents a skewed and reactionary view of the past’ (Hassan, 2012). He also pointed to the language barrier as being an additional reason why ‘nationalities with a pass rate below 50 per cent included Iraq, Bangladesh and Turkey, while migrants from Australia, Canada and the US had a pass rate of between 96 and 99 per cent’ (ibid.). The pass mark is 75 per cent (18 correct answers out of 24 questions). The citizenship test has seen some revisions since its initial introduction, with a second edition of the handbook published in 2007 and a third edition introduced in 2013. This latest edition is the most heavily edited, though is mostly characterised by the amount of material taken out of the handbook rather than new additional material. The changed subtitle, to Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents (rather than A Journey to Citizenship) may suggest a more prescriptive agenda linked to behaviour expectations, and although this corrected many of the inaccuracies contained in the first two additions, it remains problematic for some:

The test is an obstacle for persons who are currently non-citizens, but it should

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.