New citizens to be tested on knowledge of Austria

Critics: list is "absurd and unfair”.
Vienna: first tests may come in June.

Vienna. The Vienna city council has agreed that residents of the city seeking Austrian citizenship must first be able to correctly answer a list of pertinent questions about the capital.

The list of 50 questions is to focus on historic figures and events, buildings and monuments, and Vienna´s role as a base for various international organisations.

The city´s office for integration issues has given an example of questions which can be expected: What is another name for Vienna´s first district? Applicants will be asked six questions from the Vienna list and 12 questions from a list about the rest of Austria. The Vienna list is still being compiled, but city officials say the first tests could be administered as early as June.

The Vienna Greens have spoken out against the list, saying it is unfair that immigrants be required to learn what they said was an "absurd amount of detail” about the city. The federal government has left the responsibility for carrying out such citizenship tests to be up to the state governments.

In parliament, the Social Democrats and Greens have criticised such citizenship exams. The SPÖ’s Rudolf Parnigoni calls the interior ministry’s list of Austrian questions "grotesque”. Terzija Stoisits of the Greens says that if current citizens had to face the same test "then massive amounts of Austrians would be stripped of their citizenship”.

Printausgabe vom 22.03.2006