Citizenship 101 (or, Are You Smarter Than An Immigrant?)
So much for “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.” One game show I’d actually tune in to see would be “Are You Smarter Than An Immigrant?” Here’s why: immigrant bashing has never, unfortunately, gone out of style in this country. It seems someone’s always close at hand complaining how “they” don’t speak English/take our jobs/hate America/(insert jibe of choice here). While I can understand why illegal immigration gets under people’s skin, a number of those same people forget that legal immigration is the bedrock of American life and history.
But I digress. People also tend to forget that citizenship isn’t handed out like copies of the Watchtower. To become a citizen, you have to be at least 18 years of age and a lawful permanent resident of the United States. You also have to have lived in the United States for five years, unless you’re married to and living with a United States citizen for three years. You have to have a basic grasp of English. There’s oodles of paperwork, an interview, and a test.
That’s where things get interesting. I’ve met several people who are American born and bred who barely speak English. That’s not to say they speak Spanish, or Russian, or Creole. They just speak English that badly. And the test? If the statistics are to be believed, we can consider ourselves lucky when red-white-and-blue Americans can find the United States on a map, much less tell anything about what makes the country what it is. Someone who’s emigrated here from elsewhere, on the other hand, at least cares enough to learn something about the country that they have chosen as home.
So back to our television show. We’d pit your average anti-immigration crusader against someone who’s just recently passed his or her immigration exam. Neither would know the questions in advance, and the questions themselves would be similar to those on the citizenship test.
Want to take your chances? There’s a watered-down version of the exam here. It’s multiple-choice (the real exam is not), and has only a handful of questions (in the interest of full disclosure: I got a 95). Start rounding up the bigots and the new citizens, and turn up the bright lights…
Tags: immigration, Politics, Television