The coloniality of civic integration requirements in Britain. Learning as a civilising force

Research on naturalisation and civic integration has mostly focusedon how the state policies reproduce colonial social and culturalhierarchies by acting as a homogenizing force that promote natio-nalistic views. Such views, in turn, act as exclusionary measures withmigrants in a diversity of status. This paper offers a novel account ofaffective citizenship with a focus on trading learning for belongingin migrants’ experiences with civic integration processes. In parti-cular, I draw on the link between learning and deservingness toreveal the contours of the coloniality in citizenship tests. For thispurpose, I analyse semi-structured interviews with EU citizens nat-uralising as British after Brexit. Through this analysis I illustrate howcivic integration requirements such as learning for the Life in the UKtest constructed a hierarchy of belonging, where European citizenswere at the top and Europe’s others were placed at the bottom. Thearticle shows how EU citizens internalised (colonial) nationalisticand exclusionary views in their narratives about the Life in the UKtest. Paying attention to emotional responses to naturalisationprocesses helps to reveal how individuals can simultaneously resistand reinforce nationalistic views, thus perpetuating inequalities andcontributing to colonial discourses around culture, belonging andcitizenship.