Challenges Facing Immigrants Trying to Attain Citizenship

Challenges Facing Immigrants Trying to Attain Citizenship

The article by James Angelo criticizes how developed countries, particularly the European nations, using the language barrier to inhibit foreigners and immigrants from acquiring the country’s citizenship through marriage. There are a number of ways through which a person is capable of acquiring citizenship status in a foreign country. For starters, one may become a citizen if they are born in the country; they desire to become a citizen. The other process includes becoming a citizen through the process of naturalization, where a person can become a citizen by living in the country for the number of years specified by the constitution. Lastly, a person can become a citizen in foreign through marriage. Apart from birth, marriage is the most common form of way of attaining citizenship in most of the foreign countries. Local citizens from a particular country marry foreigners who are later given their citizenship status. James Angelo’s article sheds light on this issue, especially in developed countries in Europe. I agree with Angelo’s assertion that the European countries have put in place barriers to hinder foreigners from acquiring citizenship in their countries. These barriers are policies that the countries have put in place to deny the immigrant spouses from becoming citizens even through marriage.

James Angelo, in his essay, looks into the issue of migration in Europe and how immigrants are denied a chance to acquire citizenship in European countries. One of the ways the European nations are able to deny the immigrants from becoming citizens in their countries is by using citizenship exams to discriminate against those who wish to become citizens in those European countries. Some nations have come up with policies that allow for people who wish to become citizens have to pay a certain amount of money to take the citizenship exam. Angelo writes that the Human Rights watch has noticed that the “Dutch overseas test–as well as the exam fee of 350 [euro] ($450) and other financial barriers related to family immigration” (5). Apart from the payment of the exam, financial barriers have also been used to restrict immigrants from becoming citizens in the country. These policies, according to Angelo, are unjust and unfair to immigrant families who have other members of their families across the border. He further states that the financial barriers set up by the Dutch seek to decline immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia from becoming citizens in the country.

Moreover, he states that these countries employ the use of exams as a way to ensure that they are able to control the number of people who are supposed to become citizens of their countries. He narrates the story of Hasibe Koyun as she studies for her citizenship exam. Germany, in particular, has come with a language law that will only allow foreign spouses to become citizens if they are able to communicate German effectively. Thus, the twenty-three-year-old is trying her best to learn the foreign language as well as the customs and norms of the country for her to attain her citizenship. Although various countries in Europe have also adopted the pre-language rules, some people do not share such sentiments. He writes Immigrant rights advocacy groups believe that the laws, “requiring foreign spouses to learn basic English before they can immigrate violate a couple’s right to family life” (Angelo). Thus, spouses who are illiterate, unable to grasp new languages or are too old to learn new languages are supposed to let go of the idea of reuniting with their family in foreign families. I believe that such laws prohibit people to have families or be reunited with their families.

Furthermore, the policies seek to alienate foreigners who are not accustomed to the ways of life and social norms of the country they are hoping to take up citizenship. Through the eyes of Koyun, Angelo helps the audience understand how the European nations discriminate against foreigners to deny then any chance of becoming citizens. She narrates hoe Turkish people are hated by the Germans, and the reason they are hated is unknown to the general public. However, Angelo discloses that the spouses from Turkey, “tend to be seen as undesirable immigrants… unwilling to adopt European mores” (Angelo). The Germans view the spouses immigrating into their country as a group of people who enter the country to impose their way of life on them. Thus, when the day of taking the exam reaches, discrimination plays its hand, and most of the takers are failed. The immigration officers give the applicant hard written exam questions and oral exams that are designed to sabotage them and let them fail; thus, denying them a chance to become citizens. I believe that this act is unfair and unlawful, especially to the applicants who have trained and studied for months to become citizens.

The article by James Angelo highlights how the European countries have put in place policies that are supposed to hinder immigrant spouses from becoming citizens in foreign countries. The essay narrates the story of Hosibe Koyun, who is trying to become a German citizen for her marriage to take place. She is Turkish, and like most Turkish immigrants, she faces a threat of not becoming a citizen of Germany because of the country’s policies on the citizenship of immigrants. I agree with Angelo’s stand that the Europeans are coming up with policies that are unjust and unfair to the immigrants who are seeking citizenship to be reunited with their families or become married.

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