Revised Canadian citizen test results in more failures







More people than ever are failing the citizenship exam since Immigration Canada increased the difficulty level of the test last year in March of 2012. The CBC reports that there is a correlation between education level and how much of a decrease can be seen in their pass rate.

For example, those with a bachelor’s degree saw an 8 % decrease in their pass rate, whereas those with a high school education dropped as much as 15 %.

It should also be noted that those with a bachelor’s education and above fall into the immigration category called ‘economic class’ and are seen as most likely to stimulate the Canadian economy. Those who fall into a ‘family class‘ may have lower levels of education and are interested in coming to Canada to reconnect with family members who already live there.

The government recognizes there are performance gaps between the different groups and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney issued a statement reaffirming Canada’s commitment to an open doors immigration policy.

"The Government of Canada remains committed to maintaining Canada's tradition of high numbers of permanent residents taking up full citizenship, and this is one of many recent improvements that have been made to the citizenship process to ensure the timely welcoming of new citizens," said Kenney.

Immigration lawyer Stephen Green spoke to David Mckie of the CBC June 14th, explaining that the test questions are poorly worded. Green blames the poor construction of the test as  to why there are lower pass rates among landed immigrants wanting to be Canadian citizens.

"[A question on the test] would ask, for example, 'Who is in charge of the head of the party in power, and what's his title?' In my opinion, they've crafted the test in a very poor way. People know the answers, but the questions are asked convolutedly," says Green.

There are many obstacles new immigrants face such as taking a test in English or French language, which may not be their first language.

The truth is that birth rates among Canadians have been falling for years, and Canada has always been a country that needed immigration. Needlessly increasing the difficulty of the citizenship test exudes an immigration policy that is not open, and at its core, aims at keeping the doors closed rather than open.


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