Being British

I was lucky enough to attend a citizenship ceremony last week. My sister in law (originally from Pakistan) was given a British Nationality and was awarded a certificate and invited to attend a ceremony. There were 30 other nervous foreigners all waiting anxiously in the waiting room for the ceremony to begin. Each person was given a card with a number on it, they were then called into a reception room where they took their seats with their designated numbers on them. Each were given a card to read from which they were made to read in unison. They must all promise to swear allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen and her country. This was after we were given a speech about how great this country is and how multi-cultural our city is and the benefits of living in the United Kingdom.

You could tell that half the people attending were not really concerned much about these issues, the reasons why they want to live in the UK vary from one person to another. I do agree that if any such person does not abide by the law of the country they should leave, as they have literally taken an oath that they will not do anything to harm the country in any way shape or form.

Immigration rules are much tighter than they were 10 or 15 years ago, which is a good thing. However, with the UK being part of the EU, there has been an increase in workers coming into the UK from the EU, so although immigration levels are lower than previous years, the figures dont paint the full picture. Although many are successful in their applications, those seeking asylum are quite often refused. My sister in law had to do the citizenship test, which I am sure most Britons would probably fail!

I was just happy for my sister in law that she is now officially British, I told her she has to lose her accent now. Our primary aim was to make her laugh while she was taking her pledge, but she knew what we were up to and turned her back against us whilst she pretended to read it!!

We all then stood up for the national anthem.