The Home Office’s Life in the UK: British culture and society for the ‘new residents’

Since November 2005, the foreign residents in the United Kingdom who wish to apply for British citizenship need to take a test demonstrating their knowledge of the language, culture and society of Great Britain. This multiple-choice test is based on the Home Office’s publication Life in the United Kingdom, a primer containing all the relevant information to pass the test and presumably cope with all the unfamiliar routines of the British way of life. Taking into account the significance of this official publication meant as a welcome sign and a pledge of allegiance for the immigrants in the UK, this paper sets out to investigate the discursive construction of Britishness with particular attention to such crucial aspects as nationality and cultural identity. To this end, the main aspects of British society (cultural habits; citizenship; etc.) have been analysed across the three editions of Life in the United Kingdom and related to the eight dimensions of Britishness highlighted in Citizenship and Belonging: What is Britishness, a survey conducted by Ethnos on behalf of the Home Office’s Commission for Racial Equality. The analysis of these books seems to suggest that, in contrast to mainstream media endorsing an ambiguous attitude to tolerance, the representation of Britishness conveyed by the Home Office is multi-faceted, diverse and truly engaging.