Nearly 700,000 people living in Michigan are immigrants, according to the 2020 US Census, and more than half of them have become naturalized citizens. To do that, they had to go through a long process that includes living in the US for 3-5 years, proving they can read, write, and speak English, and passing a civics exam.
If you’ve never applied for citizenship, find out if you’d cut the mustard. To pass, you need to get six of 10 questions (selected from 100 possible questions applicants must know the answers to) correct. There are no multiple choice questions!
Below, we’ve randomly selected 10 for you to try. Good luck!
The Test
10. There were 13 original states. Name three.
9. Before he was president, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
8. What is the rule of law?
7. Name one of your state’s current US Senators.
6. Who is the current Chief Justice of the United States?
5. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
4. Name one US territory.
3. The House of Representatives has how many members?
2. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
1. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Remember: You need to answer 6 out of 10 correctly to pass.
The Answers
10. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
9. World War II
8. The rule of law: Everyone must follow the law. Leaders must obey the law. Government must obey the law. No one is above the law.
7. Debbie Stabenow & Gary Peters
6. John Roberts
5. Possible answers: US diplomat, oldest member of the Constitutional Convention, first Postmaster General of the US, writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” started the first free libraries
4. Possible answers: Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam
3. 435
2. 27
1. Possible answers: Freed the slaves, freed slaves in Confederate states, freed slaves in most southern states
How did you do?
A 2018 survey found that only one in three Americans could pass even a multiple choice version of the citizenship test, and compared with other states, Michigan ranked #42 in our current citizens’ ability to pass the test.
However, 96% of people applying for citizenship pass the exam, and in 2022, nearly one million immigrant adults became US citizens.
In Michigan, immigrant-led households paid $5 billion in federal taxes and $2.1 billion in state and local taxes in 2018. Undocumented immigrants in Michigan paid $317.1 million in federal taxes and $143.5 million in state and local taxes the same year.
Immigrant-led households contributed $18.4 billion to Michigan’s consumer economy in 2018, while making up 8 percent of the labor force.
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