To Be or Not to Be (Canadian)? Critiquing “Adequate” Language Practices and Canada’s Citizenship Test

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: The Tensions Between Students’ Rights and Citizenship as Inclusion

Abstract

In 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) implemented a requirement that all aspiring Canadians who wish to take the Citizenship Test must have an “adequate” level of English or French language skills, defined as Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 4. The CLB 4 language policy directly and problematically links language abilities with the right to citizenship for new immigrants, and assumes a deficit conception of literacy. This study examines the discourses found within the citizenship study guide, Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship (2012), the new language requirement policy, and the CIC website in order to expose how these place problematic restrictions on new immigrants who aspire to become Canadian.

Authors

• Casey Megan Burkholder, McGill University

• Mariaane Filion, McGill University