Immigrants hoping to live and work in California may be coming up against a new obstacle. A number of changes will soon be made to the U.S. citizenship test. As a result, some immigration experts are raising an alarm. Their worry is that these changes will make it harder for certain kinds of immigrants to enter the country.
What do the proposed changes entail?
Immigration experts are worried that the upcoming changes may make entry harder for those who don’t speak English. These alterations come in the wake of President Trump changing the test in 2020. At the time, the test received changes that made it a great deal longer and harder to pass.
When Joe Biden became President, he ordered the test restored to its previous form. Doing so took some of the pressure off immigrants with a lesser command of English. However, U.S. authorities are now claiming that the test is past due for a full overhaul. The changes currently in consideration would take effect in December 2023.
Immigrants will be expected to have a better command of the language than they have in previous years. This cancels out the ability of many people to learn English as they live in the country after immigrating. The result is a barrier erected against millions of potential asylum seekers.
Will the changes have a positive effect?
The Biden administration has recently attempted to put asylum screenings and other immigrant issues on the fast track. However, in the wake of former President Trump’s active discouraging of immigration, many feel this is too little, too late. To many experts, the impending changes to the citizenship test seem predicated on some of the negative assumptions that were made by the previous President.
For this reason, people seeking asylum in the U.S. are being urged to pay attention to these changes. Understanding what they entail may make the difference between being accepted or rejected. At the moment, the changes are still being mulled over. Once ratified, they are bound to have an effect on the flow of immigration to this country.
