Debates over how immigrants are to become citizens through naturalization—and what this entails for their preparation as successful participants in the new society—have resurfaced, prompted by the revision of the United States naturalization exam, implemented on October 1^st, 2008. The result of a 6.5 million-dollar investment and several years of consulting with scholars, policy-makers and non-governmental organizations, the new set of civics and history questions is claimed to move away from memorization to prompting aspiring citizens to engage with the fundamental principles of American democracy. This dissertation study examines the new test's position within historically-established frameworks of immigrant scrutiny and integration, as well as assesses its formative claims at civic education.

The study addresses the exam as civic preparation from institutional, educational and comparative angles and integrates a series of analytic activities, data sources and disciplinary literatures. As a qualitative, interpretative study it focuses on documentary research that employs historical inquiry, qualitative content analysis as well as rhetorical and discourse analysis. An integrative review of the literature on immigrant naturalization history in the United States, contemporary immigrant incorporation in the United States and Western Europe, U.S. civic education, and citizenship theory is coupled with a review of naturalization examination media coverage in major U.S. newspapers. On this interdisciplinary background, the study rhetorically examines primary sources relevant to the process of immigration testing as citizenship preparation—the old and new versions of the U.S. naturalization exams, selected historical and contemporary policy reports and naturalization documents, U.S. civic education frameworks and standards, the official governmental citizenship and naturalization websites of the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, and Denmark, as well as the official statements and reports on the U.S. naturalization exam and its revision process provided by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In doing so, the study draws attention to broader socio-political structures—the history of naturalization in the U.S. and the current approaches to citizenship testing in the international arena—and thus delineates the wider parameters for the more detailed attention to the exam's function as civic education. Attention to those broader parameters aims to highlight the means by which such citizenship testing policy emerges, being both reactionary and continuous—it responds to current configurations and perceptions of immigration, but in doing so, it draws on historical socio-political contexts. In turn, the civic education afforded by the exam is assessed in light of current initiatives at citizen formation in schools, as it communicates ideals of desirable citizens to the nation's newest members.