Migrants Should Volunteer – Brown

Immigrants should carry out community work before being granted UK citizenship, Gordon Brown will say. The chancellor is expected to tell a seminar on Britishness that the move would help new arrivals settle.

Mr Brown’s comments follow his earlier call for all incomers to learn English, and for the UK to have its own day to celebrate its national identity.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Brown sees citizenship as a two-way contract which could be revoked.

The chancellor will tell his audience in London that obliging migrants to carry out community work would help introduce them to the people they will be living alongside. It would also demonstrate to the host community that new immigrants will contribute to society as a whole.

The proposal would be in addition to citizenship tests, which examine knowledge of British history and culture.

Nick Robinson said some close to the chancellor acknowledged it would also act as a disincentive to those who were uncommitted or who lacked the necessary skills. Mr Brown believes citizenship should be a form of contract between new arrivals and their newly-adopted country.

“He is, I’m told, considering whether as in France, citizenship should be granted on a provisional or a trial basis so that it can be taken away later if people fail to keep their part of the contract,” the BBC’s political editor added.