The coloniality of civic integration requirements in Britain. Learning as a civilising force

Abstract

Research on naturalisation and civic integration has mostly focused on how the state policies reproduce colonial social and cultural hierarchies by acting as a homogenizing force that promote nationalistic views. Such views, in turn, act as exclusionary measures with migrants in a diversity of status. This paper offers a novel account of affective citizenship with a focus on trading learning for belonging in migrants’ experiences with civic integration processes. In particular, I draw on the link between learning and deservingness to reveal the contours of the coloniality in citizenship tests. For this purpose, I analyse semi-structured interviews with EU citizens naturalising as British after Brexit. Through this analysis I illustrate how civic integration requirements such as learning for the Life in the UK test constructed a hierarchy of belonging, where European citizens were at the top and Europe’s others were placed at the bottom. The article shows how EU citizens internalised (colonial) nationalistic and exclusionary views in their narratives about the Life in the UK test. Paying attention to emotional responses to naturalisation processes helps to reveal how individuals can simultaneously resist and reinforce nationalistic views, thus perpetuating inequalities and contributing to colonial discourses around culture, belonging and citizenship.