Citizenship, immigration laws, and language

This chapter discusses the notion of citizenship, and considers the role of language tests in citizenship procedures, underlining three dimensions: technical, ideological, and symbolic. It explores a number of fundamental issues surrounding citizenship, immigrations laws, and language within the writings of the French poststructuralist philosopher, Jacques Derrida. Citizenship has been a marker of formal membership of a particular community since Greek and Roman times. Language and language tests are playing a crucial role in citizenship procedures. For example, the UK introduced a standardized test of knowledge of British life and institutions, conducted in English, in 2005, initially for citizenship, but subsequently introduced in the naturalization process for “Indefinite Leave to Remain,” the right to permanent residency but without citizenship. One of the arguments Jacques Derrida introduces in “Force of Law” is that John Benjamin’s distinction between the violence that introduces a legal regime.