Cover not available

Article published In: Language & Citizenship
Edited by Tommaso M. Milani
[Journal of Language and Politics 14:3] 2015
► pp. 382–405

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

‘They look into our lips’

Negotiation of the citizenship ceremony as authoritative discourse

 | University of Leicester |
 | University of Birmingham |
Published online: 21 August 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.3.04kha
The British citizenship ceremony marks the legal endpoint of the naturalisation process. While the citizenship ceremony may be a celebration, it can also be a final examination. Using an ethnographically-informed case study, this article follows one candidate, ‘W’, through the naturalisation process in the UK. W is a migrant Yemeni at the end of the naturalisation process. Bakhtin’s notion of “ideological becoming” offers an analytic orientation into how competing discourses may operate. This article focuses on the role of what Bakhtin describes as “authoritative discourse” in the citizenship ceremony, in particular the Oath/Affirmation of Allegiance which citizenship candidates are required to recite. Success in the ceremony is dependent on how individuals negotiate authoritative discourse. This study follows W and highlights the complexities and negotiations of authoritative discourse in a citizenship ceremony.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Historical Context Of British Citizenship
  • 3.Citizenship Ceremonies
  • 4.Becoming
  • 5.Methodology
  • 6.Becoming British: Application Process And Citizenship Ceremony
    • 6.1Waiting to become British
    • 6.2‘They look into our lips’ – The ceremony
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
References (41)
References
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian. 2005. Discourse and Power in a Multilingual World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blunkett, David. 2002. “Passports to Celebrate.” The Sun Newspaper, July 28. Accessed January 16, 2012. [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bocock, Robert. 1974. Ritual in Industrial Society: A Sociological Analysis of Ritualism in England. London: Allen & Unwin. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1992. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. London: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cabinet Office. 2011. “Prime Minister’s Speech on Immigration.” Delivered by Prime Minister David Cameron. Accessed April 3, 2013. [URL]
Cantle, Ted. 2001. “Community Cohesion: A Report of the Independent Review Team.” Accessed July 1, 2013. [URL]
Cooper, Marilyn M., and Cynthia L. Selfe. 1990. “Computer Conferences and Learning: Authority, Distance, and Internally Persuasive Discourse.” College English 52 (8): 847–889. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crick Commission. 2003. The New and the Old. London: Home Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, John E., and Cynthia Miller-Idriss. 2008a. “Everyday Nationhood.” Ethnicities 8 (4): 536–563. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. “The ‘Here and Now’ of Everyday Nationhood.” Ethnicities 8 (4): 573–576. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hagelund, Anniken, and Kaja Reegård. 2010. “‘Changing Teams’: A Participant Perspective on Citizenship Ceremonies.” Citizenship Studies 15 (6–7): 735–748. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hampshire, James. 2005. Citizenship and Belonging: Immigration and the Politics of Demographic Governance in Postwar Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansen, Randall. 2000. Citizenship and Immigration in Post-war Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2008. “Doing Ethnography.” In The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and Multilingualism, ed. by Li Wei, and Melissa G. Moyer, 249–262. Malden: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Home Office. 2002a. Secure Borders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain. London: HMSO.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002b. Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. London: Home Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Guide AN. Naturalisation as a British Citizens – A Guide for Applicants. London: Home Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell. 1996. Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Towards an Understanding of Voice. London: Taylor & Francis. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Joppke, Christian. 1999. “How Immigration is Changing Citizenship: A Comparative View.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (4): 629–652. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Citizenship and Immigration. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karatani, Rieko. 2003. Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth and Modern Britain (British Politics and Society). London: Frank Cass Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kostakopoulou, Dora. 2003. “Why Naturalisation?” Perspectives on European Politics and Society 4 (1): 85–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Matters of Control: Integration, Naturalisation Reform and Probationary Citizenship in the United Kingdom.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36 (5): 829–846. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kostakopolou, Dora. 2011. Introduction. In A Re-definition of Belonging, ed. by Ricky van Oers, Eva Ersbøll, and Dora Kostakopolou, 11–18. Leinden; Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Layton-Henry, Zig. 1992. The Politics of Immigration: Immigration, Race and Race Relations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Löwenheim, Oded, and Orit Gazit. 2009. “Power and Examination: A Critique of Citizenship Tests.” Security Dialogue 40 (2): 145–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGhee, Derek. 2008. Intolerant Britain? Hate, Citizenship and Difference. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morson, Gary S. 2004. “The Process of Ideological Becoming.” In Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy and Learning, ed. by Arnetha F. Ball, and Sarah W. Freedman, 315–332. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paul, Kathleen. 1997. Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era. New York: Cornell University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pitcher, Ben. 2009. The Politics of Multiculturalism: Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rappaport, Roy A. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robinson, David. 2009. “Community Cohesion and the Politics of Communitarism.” In Community Cohesion in Crisis? New Dimensions of Diversity and Difference, ed. by John Flint, and David Robinson, 15–34. Bristol: The Policy Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sales, Rosemary. 2010. “What is ‘Britishness,’ and is it Important?” In Citizenship Acquisition, and National Belonging, ed. by Gideon Calder, Phillip Cole, and Jonathan Seglow, 123–140. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, Elana. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
UK Border Agency. 2011. “The British Nationality Act 1981. – Caseworking Instructions.” Vol. 11. Accessed November 28, 2011. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012a. “Citizenship Ceremonies.” In British Citizenship. Accessed March 11, 2012. [URL]
. 2012b. “Guide AN Naturalisation as a British Citizen – A Guide for Applicants.” Accessed June 29, 2013. [URL]
Verkaaik, Oskar. 2010. “The Cachet Dilemma: Ritual and Agency in New Dutch Nationalism.” American Ethnologist 37 (1): 69–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn. 1998. “Introduction: Language Ideology as a Field of Inquiry.” In Language Ideologies. Practice and Theory, ed. by Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity, 3–47. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yurchak, Alexei. 2006. Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Feuerherm, Emily & Ariel Loring
2024. How the US Oath of Allegiance weakens citizenship, encodes discrimination, and muddies the moment of becoming. Language and Linguistics Compass 18:2 DOI logo
Bassel, Leah, Pierre Monforte, David Bartram & Kamran Khan
2021. Naturalization policies, citizenship regimes, and the regulation of belonging in anxious societies. Ethnicities 21:2 ► pp. 259 ff. DOI logo
Khan, Kamran
2021. Raciolinguistic border-making and the elasticity of assessment and believeability in the UK citizenship process. Ethnicities 21:2 ► pp. 333 ff. DOI logo
Khan, Kamran
2022. The Securitisation of Language Borders and the (Re)production of inequalities. TESOL Quarterly 56:4 ► pp. 1458 ff. DOI logo
Rabbani, Deden Rafi Syafiq
2021. Problematika Hak Atas Kewarganegaraan Kehormatan Honorary Citizenship Di Indonesia: Implementasi Dan Dampaknya. SASI 27:3 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Winter, Elke
2021. Multicultural citizenship for the highly skilled? Naturalization, human capital, and the boundaries of belonging in Canada’s middle-class nation-building. Ethnicities 21:2 ► pp. 289 ff. DOI logo
Deygers, Bart
2019. Fairness and Social Justice in English Language Assessment. In Second Handbook of English Language Teaching [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 541 ff. DOI logo
Deygers, Bart
2019. Fairness and Social Justice in English Language Assessment. In Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education [Springer International Handbooks of Education, ], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue