Who Wants to Be a Citizen?

Meghan Markle has announced that she plans to become a British citizen following her marriage next year to Prince Harry.  Among other requirements, she will need to take a 24-question written test, with a minimum passing score of 75%.  The subject matter of the British test has been described as arcane and unnecessarily difficult, including questions about the Statute of Rhuddlan (annexing Wales to England) and the identity or location of Vindolanda (a Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall).  The answers are helpfully provided in a booklet published by the Home Office, and the test itself is multiple choice, so it should be reasonably manageable for Markle, who is a 2003 graduate of Northwestern University. Still, applicants are allowed only 45 minutes to complete the test – slightly less than two minutes per question – so Markle may have to call upon her by-now rusty SAT skills in order to finish on time.

If Prince Harry were ever to apply for U.S. citizenship, he would find the American test somewhat less demanding than the British one.  There are only ten questions required of aspiring U.S. citizens, administered orally by a naturalization examiner, with a passing score of six.  The questions themselves are drawn from a set of 100 civics and history questions issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), available in both booklet form and on-line, along with the approved answers.  There are no questions quite as obscure as the Statute of Rhuddlan, which was enacted in 1284, but some of them do seem far from essential for establishing citizenship.  

After the jump, I will provide some examples of questions (and approved answers) on the U.S. naturalization test that are trivial, misleading, or just plain wrong.

Here is question 67:

The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.

• (James) Madison
• (Alexander) Hamilton
• (John) Jay
• Publius

And here is question 68:

What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

• U.S. diplomat
• oldest member of the Constitutional Convention
• first Postmaster General of the United States
• writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
• started the first free libraries

Franklin was a fascinating, multi-talented, and charismatic figure, but he was not really pivotal in U.S. history.  Still, knowledge of Franklin — including his presidency of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which is not among the approved answers — is probably more basic and widespread than the authorship of the Federalist Papers.  There are no questions about the authorship of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of 1787, the Bill of Rights, or the Thirteenth Amendment (James Ashley). As it happens, Franklin is one of only three historic figures named in the questions – the other two are Martin Luther King and Susan B. Anthony – although other questions ask applicants to supply the names of the current president, the “Father of Our Country,” and the presidents during WWI and WWII (among others).

Still, Publius and Ben Franklin are downright relevant compared to some of the other questions on the test, such as “Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States” and “Name two national U.S. holidays.”

More troubling than the trivial questions, however, is the fact that some of the USCIS approved answers are incomplete, misleading, or incorrect, especially because the instructions that accompany the practice test state (boldface original):

Although USCIS is aware that there may be additional correct answers to the 100 civics questions, applicants are encouraged to respond to the civics questions using the answers provided below.

With that in mind, here is question 51:

What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?

• freedom of expression
• freedom of speech
• freedom of assembly
• freedom to petition the government
• freedom of religion
• the right to bear arms

Notably missing are freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, the privilege against self-incrimination, the right to counsel and reasonable bail in criminal cases, protection against cruel and unusual punishment, and the rights to due process and equal protection of the law.  Anyone studying from the approved answers will miss learning about most of the Constitution, and will risk getting marked wrong for mentioning anything after the Second Amendment.

And here is Question 83:

During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?

• Communism

The single approved answer would give twentieth century historians fits.  Yes, the U.S. was concerned about Communism, but there was certainly a good bit of geopolitical rivalry – unrelated to ideology – involved in the Cold War.  And of course, the greatest concern during the Cold War was keeping it from turning into a hot war with nuclear weapons, say by achieving disarmament or detente. But that answer that would be considered incorrect by USCIS examiners.

If the Cold War had only one “main concern,” according to USCIS, the Civil War was more ambiguous:  Here is Question 74:

Name one problem that led to the Civil War.

• slavery
• economic reasons
• states’ rights

Well yes, you could say that the insistence on states’ rights to slavery led to the Civil War, or that the economics of slavery expansion played a role, but this set of answers enshrines historical revisionism at its worst.

Then we come to the answers that are simply wrong.  Question 87 asks for the name of “one American Indian tribe in the United States,” followed by a long list of “federally recognized American Indian tribes.”  The last entry on the list is “Inuit,” thus making three mistakes in a single answer. Although they are a native people, the Inuit do not consider themselves Indians, they are not a tribe, and they happen to live in Canada (their Alaskan counterparts, who call themselves Yupik or Inupiak, are not among the authorized USCIS answers).

There are other answers that are equally incomplete or misleading, including one that might cause Prince Harry to hesitate about becoming an American.  Here is Question 53:

What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?

• give up loyalty to other countries
• defend the Constitution and laws of the United States
• obey the laws of the United States
• serve in the U.S. military (if needed)
• serve (do important work for) the nation (if needed)
• be loyal to the United States

It is true that the required oath reads,

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.

In fact, however, the U.S. recognizes dual citizenship, and many naturalized Americans retain full citizenship in their native countries.  Then again, Prince Harry is currently fifth in line for the British crown, and he is especially unlikely to forswear allegiance to himself (even potentially).  But just in case, he might want to note that our two longest rivers are the Mississippi and the Missouri, and our national holidays include the Fourth of July.