ABSTRACT
The newest context of interest in language assessment is in the area of immigration, citizenship, and asylum. Although language assessment in this context can be traced back to the infamous Australian dictation test for immigration in the early twentieth century, an explosion of interest, debate, and practice in this area started about twenty years ago. This recent push has meant that language assessment academics and professionals have had to enter a new arena where the explicitly stated purposes and uses of language assessments are not as clear as they could be, and where, in some cases, there are hidden agendas that are discriminatory and detrimental. This chapter will take a broader perspective on this topic than normally done in language assessment and will attempt to bring together many intersecting areas of interest. It is necessary to do this, because insights and perspectives from immigration and citizenship studies, from state ideology and language rights, and from language policy and legal matters enhance our understanding of this complex human topic of study.
