Testing identity: language tests and Australian citizenship

In this chapter, we consider the recently introduced Australian citizenship test (a formal knowledge of society test which also acts as a means of establishing whether a person has satisfied the language requirement for citizenship) as an example of the issues raised by such tests. This test is seen by its critics as forming part of a sorry tradition in Australia, dating back to the 19th century, of following international examples in the use of language tests as instruments of policy in relation to immigration and race. We introduce the political context in which the test was first mooted and implemented and consider subsequent calls for reform of the test together with the current government's response to those calls. We focus on the issue of the Australian citizenship test as a covert language test, which the recent reform of the test has failed to address