Citizenship tests in Europe : keeping a low European profile

Abstract

During the last six years, five Western European countries have created a naturalisation test that examines the candidate’s knowledge of the society. Naturalisation tests, which have existed for different reasons in Eastern European countries since the 1990s, are one instance of the membership criteria now flourishing all over Europe at different levels of the integration process. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether national citizenship tests are reconcilable with the project of building a Union citizenship and a sense of a European identity based on shared values. The study is based on the results of a survey that was sent to experts in nine member states in order to obtain information on the content of the test. This study shows that the tests practiced in the countries under scrutiny are not designed in that perspective, but could, in theory, be used as a tool to foster the individual’s sense of having a European identity.