AQA GCSE Citizenship - Life in Modern Britain

Key Terms:

Citizenship - Being a citizen of a country and being vested with the rights and responsibilities of that state.

Democracy - A system of government, where the citizens are able to vote in regular and fair elections for representatives, who will make laws and decisions on their behalf

British Values - A set of standards which reflect the ideals of the British society.

Multiculturalism - The co-existence of different ethnic races, cultures or religions.

Tolerance – being accepting of other people’s beliefs and opinions.

Rule of Law - implies that no individual or group is above the law.

Individual Liberty - individuals are free to act according to their wishes, but if the actions they take are deemed illegal by the state they then face the consequences through the legal system.

Migration - The movement of people between different countries.

Emigration – The process of people leaving a country.

Immigration - The process of people moving from one country to another to live and work.

Multiple identities - When an individual is able to assume a range of different identities. These identities may clash.

Human Rights - Basic rights and freedoms which all people are entitled to. 

What is identity?

Your identity is made up of many different factors. Simply, you could say that you identify with the place you were born, or that you are English, if you were born in England. Many people in the UK see themselves as British, which is the term given to anyone who was born in the United Kingdom. Some people would see that owning a passport for the United Kingdom confirms this identity.

However, over the last 70 years many people from different countries have moved to the UK. This has lead to a rise in people with multiple identities This could be because someone has parents of different nationalities (i.e. mother from the UK, father from France), or because they have access to different cultures i.e. was born in the UK, but has an Indian heritage

What are the British Values?

There are 4 British Values associated with contemporary British society.

1.      Democracy – all citizens should be able to participate in the democratic process.

2.      Rule of Law – implies that no individual or group is above the law.

3.      Individual Liberty – individuals are free to act according to their wishes, but if the actions they take are deemed illegal by the state then they must face the consequences.

4.      Tolerance – An essential part of living in a multicultural society is tolerating differing faiths or beliefs.

Why have people moved to the UK?

Millions of people have migrated to the UK since the end of WW2. The reasons for this can be broken down into push and pull factors.

Push factors are what drive people away from a place, such as war, low paying jobs or political instability

Pull factors are what draw people into a place, such as services such as free education and health care.

However, one of the biggest contributions to the UK’s net migration (immigration – emigration) is the freedom of movement in the EU. Since 2004 after a number of countries such as Poland joined the EU, millions of people chose to leave their countries and move to places such as the UK.

In 2019, an estimated 220,000 people moved to the UK, which has changed significantly from 2015 where net migration peaked at over 350,000.

What rights do British Citizens have?

UK citizens are protected by a number of important rights. There are two main ones that you will come back to over the course.

1.     Human Rights – these are the fundamental rights given to all people around the world. However, in 1997 these were brought into UK law.

2.     The Equality Act 2010 – this brought together all the equality laws on race, ability and gender to ensure that no one in the UK is mistreated due to differences i.e. not getting a job because of the colour of your skin.