ABSTRACT
The challenges of immigrant mobility and settlement are a central political issue in Western societies, in Europe, North America, and Australia. One response has been the introduction of citizenship requirements (Bigo 2002; van Avermaet 2009), often framed within immigration legislation (McGhee 2008); increasingly, evidence of a certain level of language proficiency is required for naturalization. Since 2001, several countries have reinvigorated notions of language and citizenship as part of immigration and ‘border control’ policies. Van Avermaet (2009) and Pulinx, Van Avermaet, and Extramiana (2014) document the shift towards restricting immigration into Europe, with several countries introducing citizenship testing and/or modifying tests to make them more onerous for the migrant, in line with more stringent entry and settlement requirements. Each new legal requirement is informed by the prevalent political discourse on immigration.
