Should Immigrants Have to Earn Points to Become Citizens?

That's what they're doing over here in the U.K. On Monday, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas unveiled a controversial new government proposal calling for a points-based test for all immigrants wishing to become British citizens.


Like several other countries including Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the U.K. has had a points-based system in place since 2003. But once immigrants had been working legally in Britain for five years, it was relatively easy for them to qualify for citizenship.

The new proposal, in contrast, dramatically ramps up the qualifications to become a British citizen. On the "positive side," immigrants can be given points for things like English language ability, earnings potential, volunteering, special artistic or scientific merit, and residence in parts of the U.K. experiencing population decline, such as Scotland.

On the "negative side," you can have points deducted for "unBritish behavior," including participating in an antiwar march or having a history of "antisocial" behavior, even if it didn't result in a conviction. Immigrants also face being sent on compulsory "orientation days" where they will be taught British values, social norms and customs -- and be charged fees to do so.

New rules will also double the period for which foreigners have to work in the U.K. before becoming eligible from five to ten years.

Not surprisingly, the proposal has generated a lot of heat, most of it negative. Some worry about the limits on freedom of expression, which many see as a key attribute of being British. "It is paradoxical to suggest that migrants could be prevented from acquiring citizenship for engaging in behavior that British citizens take for granted," wrote one columnist in the Guardian.

Others see the proposal as part of a broader effort at social control: "This government is behaving worryingly like an online predator who grooms children. It is grooming a population for unquestioning compliance. Not just migrants -- everyone is being groomed," wrote a comedian and columnist at the New Statesman.

The new system will apply to the 159,000 legal migrants a year who apply for U.K. citizenship and will come into effect in 2011. The home secretary also plans to ban wives brought here, mainly from India and Pakistan, from receiving child benefits and a wide range of other state aid unless they learn English, support British values, and do voluntary work in the community. That move could affect up to 80,000 immigrants who are allowed to settle permanently in Britain each year after marrying a U.K. citizen.

The proposals come at a particularly delicate time for immigration and multi-culturalism in general. As Financial Times columnist Christopher Caldwell argues in his new book, "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West," Muslim immigrants are changing the face of Europe in a decisive fashion. In his view, what's happening in Europe isn't an American-style melting pot, but rather "a parallel society" with its own customs, religion, even TV news stations. How accurate a statement that is remains open to debate, but there's no question that "Britishness" is a live issue here.

Nor are these debates in the U.K. without relevance to the United States.

Particularly after 9/11, fear of anti-Americanism and a concomitant need to re-assert American values resurfaced in our own country. This took many forms, from the small -- we all recall the symbolism of then-candidate Obama's flag pin -- to the large, such as rules governing student visas.

Moreover, our own immigration bill -- which would have granted amnesty to some 12 million illegal immigrants -- was killed on the Senate floor two years ago. Among its more controversial aspects was a point system that would have placed a higher value on such things as advanced degrees and work experience than on family ties.

The Obama administration has been toughening immigration laws recently as an apparent prelude to re-introducing sweeping immigration legislation either later this year or early next year. While it's still not exactly clear what that legislation will look like, the president has said that he recognizes "that people get real riled up politically about this issue."

And how.