What I didn’t like about the citizenship exam is the language test part. All it entailed was reading aloud “Who can vote?” and writing the sentence”Citizens can vote.” You don’t need to have any language competence at all to do this.
I’d prefer for there to be a real language test and for free language courses being offered to immigrants. There’s a ton of time between filing the paperwork and the exam. This would also mean new employment opportunities. You don’t need qualified teachers for this. A conversation group with several immigrants and a couple native speakers would suffice. Immigrants and natives would be brought together and allowed to interact, which is a great educational opportunity for everybody.
Pro forma tests like this one are worse than no testing because you send a very dubious message to people.
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