The teaching of Shakespeare should be compulsory.

Many people are worried about an upcoming generation of immigrants that do not identify themselves as British, while living in Britain and paying taxes to the British government.

Culture is a key tool in integration; if you can share a cultural identity, you can share other values and bring the wider community together.

Teaching Shakespeare, a bastion of British culture, in schools to this end is far better than forcing citizenship ceremonies and oaths of allegiance on children. It is not forceful, but creates a sense that they are part of a country with a long and proud history, willing to integrate new communities into its growth.

The idea that simply learning about a long-dead author will make people feel British is ridiculous. Art and literature can be appreciated without the need to be a part of the culture that produced it – admiring Macchu Picchu doesn’t integrate you with the Mayans, for instance.
Any immigrant to the UK looking at Shakespeare will see the typification of the ‘dead white man’, the personification of all that is patriotically English, and feel no greater inclination towards cultural integration than if he or she had glanced on an etching of Goethe in Germany or heard ‘Waltzing Matilda’ in Australia.
The images that Shakespeare created are outdated. Anyone who reads Shakespeare and then observes modern day Britain, with no prior knowledge of the historial relevance, would not see any link, and who could blame them? Shakespeare did not write about the things one associates with Britain today.