Georgia Southern University students will have the opportunity to see through the eyes of an immigrant trying to become a U.S. citizen this Wednesday.

Michelle Allen, a graduate assistant at the Multicultural Student Center, said The Citizenship Test and Open Forum on Immigration is designed to open students up to the challenges of being an immigrant in the U.S. through open discussion.

“The forum will be discussing what it is to be an immigrant in this country, the process of becoming a citizen in the U.S. and just sort of steps that different people have to go through in that process,” said Allen.

The forum will be held by GSU’s Multicultural Student Center and is set to take place tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Williams Center.

Dr. Debra Sabia, a professor of political science at GSU and facilitator of the event, and Allen said that many U.S. citizens do not realize the challenges immigrants face when trying to become naturalized.

“The immigration system of the U.S. is broken,” said Sabia. “Students suffer from a lack of information on how difficult the process is.”

“Like most citizens here, I really took for granted what it takes. You know the things that I’m sort of born with, the rights that I’m born with being a U.S. born citizen as opposed to someone who is an immigrant,” said Allen.

Director of the Multicultural Student Center Dr. Consuela Ward said the forum aims to get students to look at the immigration debate and recent laws from the perspective of an immigrant in the process of becoming an American.

Ward said the discussion aims to make students aware of the words they use when referring to immigrants.

“We have to be careful with language, and we’re not always careful with language, because we have never been challenged to be careful, especially if we’re in a position of power or privilege,” said Ward.

The main event of the forum will be a mock citizenship test, designed to show students some of the process for becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States.

“There’s a reading portion where they have to read in English, write in English, and speak in English and also the civics portion of the test, which is what we are going to be doing,” said Allen.

“There’s 100 possible questions that you could be asked and you’re asked 10 of those and you have to get six right for the process,” said Allen. “Instead of doing 10 questions we’re going to do 20 questions, so doubling that will give more of a feel for the program.”

Jada Holsey, a graduate assistant at the Multicultural Student Center, said the test will remind students of the rights and history of the Constitution.

Holsey said this will give people a chance for them to be aware of what they are pledging their life to. He salso said American citizens need to know what the Constitution says about citizenship.

Sabia said the event should motivate students to become more involved in fixing the problems of the immigration system.