Life in the UK: A Journey to Citizenship 2007: A Journey to Citizenship - Great Britain. Home Office

Although I don’t like reading books in English due my English level, but one book I had to read carefully from beginning to the end. The name of the book is Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship - 2nd Edition (2007) by The Home Office. There are two editions and the second one was updated in 2007. My review relates only to the latest edition.

What’s it about

Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship is an official book published by Home Office which is in charge of immigration affairs of the country. Although the book just has 145 pages in paperback it has a very big readers’ group. It contains 6 chapters and has everything you need to know in order to pass the UK Citizenship Exam.

The chapter 1 is a brief introduction about the UK Citizenship Exam. According to Home Office regulation people who are a migrant from outside Europe can apply to settle permanently in the UK after having lived legally in the UK for a certain length of time (usually between two and five years). However they must pass an exam hosted by Home Office to demonstrate a good knowledge of language and life in the UK. To help these people in the exam Home Office has produced the handbook and announced the contents of Chapter 2 to 6 are required reading for the test.

Chapter 2 A changing society

This chapter started from the immigration history of the United Kingdom from past to today. It listed when and why people in different origins migrated to Britain. Then it focused the changing roles of women and children separately. Afterwards the contents briefly mentioned some social affairs such as education, work, smoking, alcohol, Illegal drugs and young people’s political and social attitudes.

Chapter 3. UK Today: a profile

This chapter mainly talked about 4 issues: population, religion, customs and traditions. In the parts of population and religion it listed the exact numbers of populations, ethnic proportion of four countries(England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and religions in the UK according to the census of 2001.

Chapter 4. How the United Kingdom is governed

From British Constitution this chapter deeply analysed the relationships between the monarchy and the government, the governing party and opposition party, the House of Commons and The House of Lords, as well as the UK with EU and UN etc; Through these relationships you can also further read the roles of Prime Minister, MPs (Members of Parliament) and other Devolved administration and so on.

Charter 5. Everyday needs

This chapter focused on the things you need to face in your daily life.

(1)Housing: buying or renting a home;

(2) Services in and for the home: water, electricity and gas, telephone, refuse collection, council tax, buildings and household insurance etc.

(3) Money, credit and loans: the topics would be what you need to open a bank account or building society account, what debit, credit and store cards are, what a credit union is and how to get help with benefits and problems with debt.

(4) Health: finding a doctor, registering with a GP, using your doctor and going into hospital etc.

(5)Education, it includes the different stages of a child’s education, differences in the education systems in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, etc.

(6) Leisure, for example how films are classified and why you need a television licence.

(7) Travel and transport, how to get a driving licence and what you need to do to be allowed to drive a vehicle in the UK,etc.

Chapter 6. Employment

The book used one chapter to talk about employment issues, from how to look for a work and how to start a interview, to the topics of how to work and to resolve the problems at a work. It also mentioned the law about child’s work.

My personal experience

I started to read the book about one month ago. At the beginning I was bored and felt difficult to go on. Every chapter seemed long and meaningless. Some topics seemed too easy and too ridiculous to be mentioned. For example do you know what’s the number of the population of Indian or Chinese; What’s the proportion of Sikh in British population. I wonder if people really need to know the exact numbers for being a qualified British citizen. Another example, if you lost your credit card what you should do? The answer is you should report your card company immediately. I wonder how many people in the world don’t know this kind of common sense.

However the more I read the book the more I realised these contents were wisely developed in the book. For every chapter it has a very clear clue to spread. On the way to understand every topic you can improve your English skill to a decent level. You can also get some knowledge that ordinary adult citizens of the country already know or should know. For example before I was quite vague about British political system. Some issues connecting to cabinet or shadow cabinet, the power of the Queen and the Prime Minister were interesting to me, however I didn’t know these exactly. This book gave me a chance to get a big picture about British political system, educational system as well other wider ranges of life knowledge needed in the UK. Because now I have a clear idea about these issues I’m getting more interested in the upcoming general elections and our local election. Although I have no right to vote yet but at least I know what is happening around me and what people are talking about. Now I feel myself more belong to the country.

Last but not least, as I mentioned above this book was released to help people in the exam of life in the UK. On 6 April 2010 I attended the test and gladly found all questions I came across could be found an answer in the book. Obviously I don't need to say how important and useful the book is for the test.

The handbook is available from many bookshops or from Home Office website. Currently the price on Amazon website is about £7 with Free Super Saver Delivery in the UK.