Life in the UK Test 

2026 Backhand Exhibition

I was inspired to make this after watching my girlfriend go through the process of getting Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Not only is it really expensive to try to settle in this country (visa fees, healthcare surcharge fees) but it's a long destabilising process which makes people feel like they’re just not wanted here. To get ILR, you need to pass the Life in the UK test. It’s a 24 multiple-choice test, to be completed at a centre off Old Market within 45 minutes. It’s supposed to cover the basics about life in the UK; history, geography, culture, government structures etc. It should be useful (sure, it’s helpful to know where Swansea is) but it’s also revealing in what the book chooses to include and exclude. The history section is particularly flawed in relation to decolonisation and slavery. In 2020 over 180 historians wrote the Home Office to rewrite or withdraw the chapter. “The handbook promotes the misleading view that the Empire came to an end simply because the British decided it was the right thing to do…The abolition of slavery is treated as a British achievement in which enslaved people themselves played no part, and the book is equally silent about colonial protests, uprisings and independence movements.”(see “Historians Call for a Review of UK’s Home Office Citizenship and Settlement Test”)


With nationalism increasing in volume, Bristol Patriots getting louder, St George’s flags on bridges and lamp posts - becoming British continues to be an aspiration, burden and barrier. 
I challenge you all to do the Life In The UK Test and see how you score!

Photo credit: https://www.instagram.com/irenehacefotos/#