Tougher new test for migrants will replace ‘pub quiz’
IMMIGRANTS in future will face a tougher new citizenship test, Home Secretary Sajid Javid pledged yesterday.
“A pub quiz is not enough” to enable somebody to become a citizen, he declared, mocking the current rules.
Mr Javid told the conference that communities where people do not support British values or even speak English were unacceptable.
He said that under his plans newcomers would only be welcome if they sign up to the British way of life. To loud applause, Mr Javid said: “It is only right that we make it clear to all new citizens what we are for, and what we are against.
Liberal
“The existing ‘Life in the UK’ test for new citizens is not enough.
“Maybe it is helpful for people to know the name of the sixth wife of Henry VIII but far more important to me, is that they also understand the liberal, democratic values that bind our society together.”
He added: “Citizenship should mean more than being able to win a pub quiz. We need to make it a British values test – and that’s exactly what I will bring in.
“It’s about signing up to those values that we share and live by together. It’s about starting as you mean to go on.
“It’s about integration, not segregation.”
In a reference to separate communities to be found in some of Britain’s biggest cities, he added: “I’m determined to break down barriers to integration wherever I find them.
“Take for example, the most basic barrier of all: language. When I was the Communities Secretary, we found that over 700,000 people in the UK cannot even speak a basic level of English.
“How can we possibly make a common home together if we can’t even communicate with each other?”
He also announced new measures to tackle forced marriages as practised among some migrants.
Professionals in education, social services and the health service will have a mandatory duty to report suspicious circumstances including forced spousal visas which allow husbands from abroad access to the UK.
The Home Secretary said: “It is not liberal to stay silent about illiberal practices – that’s just weakness.
“If we see people undermining our values and don’t do anything about it, we undermine our values still further.
“We cannot allow that.”