JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP

o Bridget Byrne Exploring the experiences of new citizens in the UK

CONTENTS

Introduction iv

Journeys to citizenship: Exploring aspects of British values through the lens of Citizenship 1

Melody’s story 7 Ghedi’s story 8 Prakesh’s story 10 Rada’s story 12

Glossary 14

Acknowledgements 19 INTRODUCTION

his teaching resource is based on research done by Professor Bridget T Byrne at the University of Manchester which involved one-on-one interviews with a range of individuals who had completed the process of naturalization and had just become British citizens. We usually hear about migrants and refugees as a collective noun rather than as individuals. This masks some very significant differences between different migrants, who come from many countries via different routes of entry and reasons for coming to the UK. Taking a life history approach, enables us to see the respondents experience of migrating to Britain – whether as asylum seekers, accompanying family or those seeking work. In the interviews, the respondents reflected on their experiences of migration and of navigating the processes of becoming citizens and how they felt about their identities now that they were British citizens. They also told of their experiences of living in the UK as migrants, often at the receiving-end of hostility. These case studies are based on the accounts of real individuals and show the diverse experience of migrants across the country – including those in Belfast, London and Manchester.

SUGGESTED USE OF THE CASE STUDIES IN THE CLASSROOM The Programme of Study for Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4 provide the context for teaching about aspects of migration, identity and Britishness.

o www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in- england-citizenship-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-citizenship- programmes-of-study-for-key-stages-3-and-4

Teachers can find clear references to these in the PoS content and aims and objectives but should teach beyond this, developing schemes of work that encourage pupils to think critically about the issues and further understand the concepts, gathering new information and

iv Introduction

to put the case studies at the heart of a short unit about identity and diversity, exploring perceptions locally and nationally and then moving to investigate the experiences of new entrant citizens before deciding how to take action on their learning. The lessons framework provides a template for teachers to use to create such a learning opportunity but it only a suggestions and teachers can use their own ideas for developing the work or dropping the case studies into existing schemes of work. One specific matter to reference is the importance of pedagogical approaches that teachers may use. It is vital that teachers are familiar with strategies to cover topical, controversial and sensitive issues. Many of the potential discussions will require careful management if they are to be successful and include all students without fear of prejudicial commentary. Guidance on approaching topical, controversial and sensitive issues can be found at o http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/resource/prevent-duty-and-controversial- issues-creating-curriculum-response-through-citizenship

Teachers should also familiarise themselves with teaching critical thinking skills, ensuring that they can differentiate between thinking and critical thinking. Additionally, approaches involving deep question raising may be helpful-for example those making use of the Philosophy for Children methodology and Community of Enquiry-see more at:

o www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/teaching-controversial- issues?cid=rdt_tools-and-guides-controversial-issues

Finally, teachers may consider an approach following the Deliberative Classroom, whereby pupils make use of debate and discussion that is less about adversarial positioning and more about knowledge based debate. More about this can be found at:

o www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/deliberative-classroom-topical-debating -resources-and-teacher-guidance

v JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP: EXPLORING ASPECTS OF BRITISH VALUES THROUGH THE LENS OF CITIZENSHIP

P urpose of this work. The content of the story pack will enable pupils to develop informed opinions about a contemporary controversial and political issue through exploration and critical thinking. It will set out to enable pupils to develop their knowledge of the experiences of those who travel to settle in the UK and their journey to British citizenship. Pupils will be able to better contextualise aspects of British Values through these stories in relation to key concepts in citizenship learning. The teacher will deepen critical thinking approaches and enable change-actions at the end of the activities. The following framework contains suggestions for teachers for use in the classroom. However, it should be adapted to teacher’s style and the circumstances of individual teaching contexts. It is important to be mindful of approaches to teaching controversial, topical and sensitive issues. This work is based on 4 personal stories (the names of individuals have been changed): Melody, Prakesh, Ghedi and Rada LEARNING FOCUS CITIZENSHIP The pupils should understand and be able to: • Understand the complex arguments about identity and Britishness and be able to explain why identity is such a complex and emotive issue. • Understand some of the reasons why some people come to Britain and want to become British citizens. • Describe diverse journey to citizenship and advantages and disadvantages that new entrants attribute to becoming British citizens • Understand the experiences of new entrant British citizens and the challenges they face and be able to develop arguments to counter xenophobic and racist narratives about new entrant British citizens.

1 Journeys to Citizenship

Understand how individuals and communities relate to new entrant citizens and what actions can be taken to support vulnerable migrants.

CONTEXT The teacher introduces the key context of the story-the people involved and their back story. The story pack consist of information about four individual/s involved, the key challenges they have faced in UK and key experiences-including that relating to British citizenship.

UNPACKING THE STORY THROUGH SILENT DEBATE The teacher needs to consider how pupils will discover and then share their immediate findings. A flexible and powerful tool is a silent debate approach, whereby the questions are written individually onto large pieces of A1 paper and then pupils, having read the story sheet will tour each A1 sheet and add their comments.

What is this story about? Who is involved? Where is this happening? Why does this matter? What may happen next? Who has suffered? Which are the better choices/decisions that have been made? The teacher-after short allotted time-then asks for pupils to feedback on immediate findings and sets up the discussion about the main issues- perhaps splitting these into the following: identity, citizenship, justice and rights.

IDENTIFYING AND EXPLORING ISSUES FOR DEVELOPMENT Pupils will use the following questions to explore the story in more detail. They should be directed to try and complete the questions by identifying and exploring the detail in the key issues in relation to Justice, Rights, Diversity, Identity, Xenophobia, Law, Tolerance, Community Participation: • How did you feel about the story and storyteller? Did hearing from them change your perspective? • Did you at any time feel ashamed or uneasy in what you read and why? • Was there anything in the story that made you feel good about being British? Why was this and how can you explain this feeling?

2 Journeys to Citizenship

SHARING IDEAS AND FINDINGS Pupils have to evaluate the materials in the story pack and consider HOW to share the following with others in the class. They might choose posters, PowerPoint, web page, blog page, oral presentations, booklets, diaries etc. • The reasons the storyteller has for arriving in UK and their experiences in coming to Britain • The problems and challenges the story teller has faced in gaining British citizenship, including taking the Citizenship Test • What they see as the benefits of becoming a British citizen • What it feels like to move to Britain and their experiences of life in UK

CONSOLIDATING, REFLECTING AND CONSIDERATION OF CHANGE ACTIONS Pupils will now have the opportunity to critically reflect on their learning, on what they have heard and read about, what they think and feel about the storyteller’s experiences and also the thoughts and opinions of their class. Some catalysts for discussion might be: How can pupils account for the difference between their attitude towards people they don’t know but may feel threatened by as opposed to those they just don’t know • Can you think of examples from your own lives where hostility to a group of people in the abstract turns into sympathy and understanding for real individuals? • Some people say that racism and intolerance are based on ignorance. Do you agree? • Do you think that there are advantages to having citizenship? • How are those without citizenship vulnerable? • What else do you want to know about becoming a British citizen? • How might we as a school community ensure that those who come into our wider community are treated with respect, justice, tolerance and fairness? • What does the story make you want to do as a result-actions you might take that might help or support others in this situation?

USEFUL RESOURCES AND CONTACTS o The Red Cross has several useful resources and lesson plans http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Teaching-resources

o Our Migration Story: The Making of Britain presents the often untold stories of migrants to Britain and has resources for teachers: https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/information-for-teachers.html

o Young Citizens also has resources for teachers: http://www.youngcitizens.org.

3

JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP: MELODY’S STORY z elody is a 23-year-old woman living in Liverpool. She is originally Mfrom Zimbabwe, and came to Britain when she was 14 as an asylum seeker. Both her parents had died and she needed to leave Zimbabwe for her safety. She was given refugee status in Britain, and was looked after by a foster family, who looked after her really well.

It was really difficult for Melody to lose her parents and then come to a strange country all alone and sometimes this still makes her very sad. She doesn’t like to talk about, or hear about, Zimbabwe as it’s too upsetting. It feels like a very long journey to get to where she is in her life. She found it difficult to adjust to school life in Britain – the relationship between teachers and pupils was different to what she was used to, and pupils behaved really differently. Something Melody really liked at her school was how multi-ethnic her school was. She wasn’t used to black and white people socialising together freely, as it was different in Zimbabwe. She left school with only one GCSE as she’d been adjusting to being in a new country and a new school system. But later she returned to college to do A-levels Having British citizenship will make a real difference to Melody’s life. It will give her the chance to feel like a citizen who has a voice about the country, and she’ll be able to vote in elections. She wants to get more involved in life in Britain and give something back – she might start volunteering. Without British citizenship, it was complicated and expensive to travel in Europe, so she hasn’t been able to go with friends on holidays to Europe. She’s really looking forward to going on a trip with her friends. It wasn’t easy for Melody to get British citizenship. She doesn’t earn a lot of money and she had to save for more than a year to save enough money to pay for all of the process – this cost her at least £1,000. The citizenship test was also hard. Even though she speaks fluent English, she ended up having to take it twice. You have to learn a lot of information, which you don’t learn at school and you don’t know which part of the book they’re going to test you on. She knows someone who had to take the test four times before they passed it. Melody is looking forward to her future in Britain. She feels at home in Liverpool and she doesn’t want to go back to Zimbabwe – maybe she’ll visit if she has children and wants to show them where she came from. She knows that some people in Britain don’t think there should be so much immigration, but she also worries that there might be a child in the same situation she was in, who is not able to get the support she found in the UK.

6 1

7 JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP: PRAKESH’S STORY

z rakesh, or iginally fr om I ndia, has been living in a village near elfastB Pwith his wife and 2 children for 7 years. Bef ore coming to the U , K Prakesh lived with his family in Singapore, Bahrain and Dubai. Prakesh’s wife got a job as a nurse at a hospital in the UK and he came with her. He works in a hospital as well, as a healthcare assistant. His wife works as a nurse. Prakesh had thought of moving again, perhaps to Australia, but the family decided to stay in Britain. The children were in good schools and they were very well settled. It was important for them to get a good education. Prakesh felt that it was easier for Indians to settle in Britain as they have some shared history as part of the British Empire and Commonwealth, and English is an official language in India. He already feels like a British citizen and is an active member of the community. Prakesh didn’t find the citizenship test difficult – as he reads lots of newspapers and listens to the news. But he doesn’t think there should be a test. Prakesh sometimes has discussions with his work colleagues and he feels that even though many are born in the UK their knowledge about society and politics is limited. He thinks that children should learn more in schools about the history. Prakesh has experienced quite a lot of racism and hostility in Northern Ireland. He has had stones thrown at their windows at home and at work, some of his wife’s patients say they don’t want to be treated by a ‘black nurse’. Prakesh is a founder member of an Indian community group made up of forty-six families. Various activities and events are organised, for instance a cooking demonstration in a primary school and there are plans to organise an international day in the schools. Prakesh thinks that these activities have the potential to break down some barriers. He is planning a community event funded by a charitable organisation and people from various communities have been invited to attend. There will be some performances, including the Irish dance, as well as Irish and Chinese bands, and an Indian orchestra. Prakesh believes that this brings various communities together and offers the opportunity to get to know each other. It took Prakesh nearly six months to apply for British citizenship. He described it as a lengthy process. Once Prakesh gets his British he has to give up his Indian citizenship and apply for a card which will declare him as an Overseas Citizen of India. This might feel a bit strange, to give up his Indian citizenship, but he is not too worried. He can still travel to India.

8 9 JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP: GHEDI’S STORY z

hedi is 31 years old. He is originally from Somalia and came to GManchester with his family as asylum seekers when he was around 10 years old. Ghedi experienced racism when he first moved to the UK. In the area where his family was placed in temporary housing, there were only a few non-white families and stones were thrown through their windows. A friend of his was beaten and hospitalised. His family later moved to an area which was more multi-ethnic where there was less racism.

Ghedi did not apply for citizenship immediately after he became eligible. He’d done the application forms for his parents, but they took a lot of work, filling in all the forms, finding all the documents etc. and he felt that he had rights as a resident, so didn’t need citizenship.

His family had been encouraging him to get British citizenship for some time and then the experience of travelling abroad and some of the hassle he experience at borders made him want a , which would represent his identity more clearly. He also began to find that it was more complicated to get work when he didn’t have citizenship. Without a passport to show, he had to bring in other forms of identity papers. Because he’d delayed in applying for British citizenship, it was much more expensive – suddenly the fees you had to pay went very high.

Ghedi thought that his British-born friends would not have passed the citizenship test. He felt the test acted more like a barrier to becoming a citizen than giving immigrants useful information.

Ghedi identifies as both British and Somali, but he’s not sure he feels English – perhaps that is only for white people? Ghedi says that, when he’s outside the UK – especially in Somalia, he feels more British. But in Britain, people seem him as Somali or Black first, and that affects how he sees himself. Ghedi does voluntary work with immigrants and feels that the government is increasingly hostile to immigrants, especially non-EU immigrants and asylum seekers.

10 11 JOURNEYS TO CITIZENSHIP: RADA’S STORY

z

ada is a 38 year old woman from . She has been living in RLondon for 9 years. She is a caseworker at a solicitor’s office. She studied and worked as a lawyer in Bulgaria before she came to London. When she arrived in the UK, Bulgaria was not part of the . She found it difficult at first especially as she was a single mother and she didn’t have any support. It was a struggle to pay the rent and pay for childcare out of her wages.

Rada didn’t really plan to stay in the UK – she was coming for work experience. But then she met and fell in love with her English husband, so she’s going to stay here, although they go back to Bulgaria a lot for holidays (and maybe might live there when they retire). In her heart she is Bulgarian so she will also keep her Bulgarian passport. She’s had to get used to British people who can be quite reserved, compared to Bulgarians, but she feels very at home in London, where there are people from all over the world.

She was prompted to apply for citizenship partly because her Bulgarian passport was expiring, and it made her think about getting a British passport. When Rada applied for British citizenship, she received some letters questioning her relationship with her husband. This made her feel upset because she didn’t get married to get a British passport but because they were a family.

Rada didn’t really like the citizenship test, although she did want to learn more about British history, but she wasn’t so interested in the percentage of different religious groups are in the population. Rada said it was expensive to get British citizenship. She had to pay over one thousand pounds for her and her child. In addition, she had to pay for the citizenship test and the books and she had to take some days off work. While the money was not a problem for her, she said she was aware that for others it is a lot of money.

12 13 GLOSSARY­

z

Asylum seeker: An asylum seeker is someone who has left their home country and is seeking protection from another country. They may have been a victim of political violence or fleeing war. Under international law, states are obliged to consider claims for asylum and not immediately send asylum seekers to the countries they have fled from. If their case is accepted (often after several years of waiting), they have refugee status. There were 39,000 asylum seekers in the UK in 2016. The United Nations estimates there are approximately 3.2 million refugees world-wide.

Britishness: the quality of being British. There have been many attempts historically to define Britishness, particularly by politicians. However, what is understood as Britishness is likely to be different for different people and to change over time. It may also relate to other national identities such as Scottishness or Welshness.

Citizen: a person who is legally a member of a particular country and therefore has rights in that country. People are citizens through birth (being born in the country or being the children of citizens) or through naturalization (see below). Some of the rights attained by citizens are also shared by those who are residents in the country.

Citizenship: citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as a legal member of a state. Having citizenship in a state generally gives you certain rights, privileges and duties. Some countries allow you to have dual (or even multiple) citizenships, whereas others do not. The UK allows its citizens hold other citizenships.

Citizenship test: anyone seeking Indefinite Leave to Remain or to become a British citizen must pass the ‘Life in the Test’. It is a multiple choice test which has questions drawn from the book Life in the United Kingdom which covers topics such as British values, history, traditions and everyday life.

14 Glossary

Colony: A country or area under full or partial political control of another country and occupied by settlers from that country.

Commonwealth: (also known as the Commonwealth of Nations –and formerly known as the British Commonwealth): a grouping of nations – which were mostly former territories of the British Empire. These countries compete in the Commonwealth Games.

Diversity: an understanding that individuals are unique and also a recognition that some of those differences may be shaped by ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs etc.

Immigrant/migrant: someone who migrates into a country. Generally an immigrant migrates with the intention of staying as a settler. A migrant may come more temporarily.

Empire: a group of countries all controlled by the government or ruler of one particular country, often as a result of military conquest. The British Empire was the largest empire in history and at its height controlled almost a quarter of the Earth’s total land area and almost a quarter of the world’s population. In the Twentieth Century, many countries achieved independence from the British Empire as a result of struggles for independence, freedom and decolonisation (the end of being a colony).

Human Rights: these are the universal rights which are understood to belong equally to every individual regardless of their nation, location, gender, ethnic origin or any other status. These include freedom from torture, from unlawful imprisonment, from slavery and also the right to free speech, a fair trial and to life. In 1948 after the horrors of the Second World War, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All countries have a responsibility to defend the human rights of any individual.

Identity: who a person is (how they see themselves and also how others see them) – including the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others. We may have different identities, for example a ‘national identity’ – the sense of what it means to come from a particular nation; or ‘religious identity’ – what it means to belong to a particular religious group etc.

Indefinite leave to remain (or permanent residence):this is an immigration status granted to a person who has been admitted to the UK without any time limit on his or her stay and who is free to take up employment or study without restriction. Among other requirements, applicants must have lived in the UK for at least 5 years before applying for permanent residence.

15 Naturalisation: the process of becoming a citizen of a country you were not born in, or had citizenship rights in.

Racism:the belief that there are distinct ‘races’ based on physical characteristics (such as skin colour, hair type etc.) and that all members of each race possess specific abilities or qualities and that these are inferior or superior to other races. Racism is particularly damaging when it causes prejudice and discrimination directed against someone of a different racial group based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

Refugee: A refugee is a person who has fled armed conflict or persecution and who is recognised as needing international protection because of a ‘well- founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’. International law, in the 1951 Refugee Convention states that refugees should not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom would be at risk. There are estimated to be 123,000 refugees in the UK in 2015 (that’s around 0.2% of the population). The United Nations estimates that there are 21 million refugees in the world (but many more – 40.8 are internally displaced – which means they have fled their homes, but remain in the same country).

Refugee Convention: This is a treaty (agreement) created by the United Nations (see below) which defines who a refugee is (see above) and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum. It was created in 1951 and has been agreed by 145 countries.

United Nations: an organization which brings together almost all the countries of the world and aims to promote co-operation between nations and to create and maintain an agreed set of rules to promote international peace and promote human rights. It was established after the Second World War in October 1945 with the hope of preventing such a conflict.

Xenophobia: a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

16 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

z

his learning resource was written by: T Bridget Byrne (University of Manchester) and Chris Waller (ACT - The Association for Citizenship Teaching) Elena Gumeniuk illustrated and designed the resource. The resource is based on research undertaken by Bridget Byrne which was funded by The Leverhulme Trust. The School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester and CoDE (ESRC Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity) provided support for the production of this learning resource. Bridget would like to thank the individuals who have their stories about their own, sometimes difficult experiences. For more information, contact: [email protected] or see: o https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/bridget.byrne.html. You can also hear Bridget talking about the research here: o http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nvjhp. The research is published in a book: Making Citizens: Public Rituals and Personal Journeys to Citizenship (Palgrave, London).

19