What is Identity? (AQA GCSE Citizenship Studies): Exam Questions

Settling into French life.

Immigrants who come to France to settle and live are expected to assimilate into French life. Immigrants are expected to abandon their culture for that of France.

French life is also built around the idea of secularism, i.e. religion plays no part in official life and has no impact on the laws of France. France has been a secular society since the French Revolution in the 18th century.

In 2004 the French government passed a law prohibiting the wearing of, or open display of, religious symbols in all French schools, including crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and the hijab.

Child asylum to the UK

The number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the last year has put a dramatic strain on a range of public and community services in Kent.

The number of under 18 year olds needing foster care and arriving in Dover from Syria or Iraq has risen from 238 a year ago to 369 in April and during the last three months has risen to 605. This is a massive increase on the number of children Kent normally deals with in a year. Many of these young children have become separated from their families and are very traumatised. The majority do not speak English.
Where possible groups of children from the same family are kept together

The council has re-opened reception centres to deal with the increase in numbers of children including the Swattenden Centre near Cranbook which can receive 40 teenagers.

A leafleting campaign was launched against the re-opening of the Swattenden centre due to its proximity to a nursery and a primary school.

Other people, including the local MP are supportive of the child asylum seekers and have urged the community to be welcoming

Diversity in the UK

The England men’s cricket team won the World Cup in 2019. The captain, Eoin Morgan, praised the team for being a great example of diversity. He said the team’s diverse backgrounds were a great strength.

Morgan had previously played for Ireland. He was asked if the ‘luck of the Irish’ helped England to win.

He responded: “We had Allah with us as well.”

England also won the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in 2022. The final of the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup was shown on the BBC. It was watched by 1.3 million viewers.

Wheelchair Rugby League is considered the most inclusive sport of all. This sport is not solely a disability sport. Disabled people, non-disabled people, men and women can all play in the same team.

National and regional identities

British identity is an important part of UK society. However, the UK is made up of four different nations. This means that as well as a British identity many UK citizens also have national and regional identities.

These different identities are reflected in various ways. One of these is devolution. Devolution gives regional government to different parts of the UK.