Immigrants or not, get the lingo right
Since most media and policy focus in India obsesses about the kind of stuff that keeps immigration lawyers active, one often tends to miss the larger picture.
By Sudeshna Sen, ET Online |
I’m told that the UK Home Office’s recent measure, which make it compulsory for skilled non-EU immigrants to know English, is ruffling lots of feathers back home. Since most media and policy focus in India obsesses about the kind of stuff that keeps immigration lawyers active, one often tends to miss the larger picture.
I don’t normally pay much attention to the periodic immigration palavers; I’m mostly of the view that Indians are more than capable of working their way around any set of new rules any immigration authority imposes.
So this isn’t about immigration.
It’s about the English as she is spoke, and writ.
The fact, as every Londoner knows, is that multicultural Britain is in some danger of becoming largely a non-English speaking nation. In the streets of London, for instance, it’s quite hard to find people who speak English these days. And I’m not even talking about the incomprehensible accents here; a north of England accent can sound much like Polish to the international ear.
None of this, of course, is helped by the fact that Britain has poured gallons of taxpayers money in providing translators for immigrants to date, so many - of which quite a few are Asian and Indian - have never bothered to learn the language.
In a nutshell, we were told, around the time the measure was launched, that 35,000 out of the 95,000 non-EU immigrants over the past year would have failed an English test, if they took it. Just for the record, in this year’s GCSE results, 36.7 % of British students did actually fail to get the English language level required under the new rules. And that’s an improvement over the results from last year.
We don’t have any such numbers for adult EU immigrants, but we don’t really need them to say that some of those with the biggest English speaking problems are from the EU - all the Eastern European accession states. Forget about knowing English before they start working here, most find it impossible to gain fluency even after years in the UK. Most, despite having skills and degrees, end up as unskilled labour because of this.
While we’re about it, the Leitch report, the authoritative report for education and skills reforms commissioned by the UK government, and published last winter, found that 5 million adults in the UK lack functional literacy; 17 million adults have difficulty with numbers; and more than one in six young people leave school unable to read, write or add up properly. That is, in a population of 60 odd million.
Given the general mood about immigration, globalisation, and India/China, it’s not very surprising that the UK government’s been forced to make some conciliatory moves.
Britain is now extremely concerned with the poor level of its school-leavers, and industry is rather fed up with the basic skills they get from graduating job-seekers. Business organisations have called the schooling system a ‘national scandal’ and ‘a nightmare for businesses’.
UK’s apex industry association, the Confederation of British Industry, in its 2007 employment trends survey found that 52% of employers are dissatisfied with the basic literacy of school leavers, 59% with their basic numeracy.
The UK government has launched a huge programme, signing up employers to ‘upgrade’ employee skills with workplace training; naturally businesses are not thrilled with the idea, claiming that the private sector is being made to pay for the mistakes of the school system.
The CBI survey suggested 86% of employers think improving maths and English skills should be the government’s top priority. The UK has set a target for 95% functional literacy in ten years, with a focus on the three ‘Rs’, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.
So my advice to the all those back home affected by this, is stop whingeing to the press or paying immigration lawyers; sign up for an English language course instead. After all, if you can do Maths, and you can speak English, you’ll have an advantage over a lot of the locals once you do get here.
I don’t normally pay much attention to the periodic immigration palavers; I’m mostly of the view that Indians are more than capable of working their way around any set of new rules any immigration authority imposes.
So this isn’t about immigration.
It’s about the English as she is spoke, and writ.
The fact, as every Londoner knows, is that multicultural Britain is in some danger of becoming largely a non-English speaking nation. In the streets of London, for instance, it’s quite hard to find people who speak English these days. And I’m not even talking about the incomprehensible accents here; a north of England accent can sound much like Polish to the international ear.
None of this, of course, is helped by the fact that Britain has poured gallons of taxpayers money in providing translators for immigrants to date, so many - of which quite a few are Asian and Indian - have never bothered to learn the language.
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But back to immigration and HSMP, which is upsetting so many wannabe skilled migrants in India. In a nutshell, we were told, around the time the measure was launched, that 35,000 out of the 95,000 non-EU immigrants over the past year would have failed an English test, if they took it. Just for the record, in this year’s GCSE results, 36.7 % of British students did actually fail to get the English language level required under the new rules. And that’s an improvement over the results from last year.
We don’t have any such numbers for adult EU immigrants, but we don’t really need them to say that some of those with the biggest English speaking problems are from the EU - all the Eastern European accession states. Forget about knowing English before they start working here, most find it impossible to gain fluency even after years in the UK. Most, despite having skills and degrees, end up as unskilled labour because of this.
While we’re about it, the Leitch report, the authoritative report for education and skills reforms commissioned by the UK government, and published last winter, found that 5 million adults in the UK lack functional literacy; 17 million adults have difficulty with numbers; and more than one in six young people leave school unable to read, write or add up properly. That is, in a population of 60 odd million.
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The English for skilled migrants is part of a larger British Jobs for British people initiative; and part of Gordon Brown’s measures to appease an increasingly disenchanted trade union movement. Given the general mood about immigration, globalisation, and India/China, it’s not very surprising that the UK government’s been forced to make some conciliatory moves.
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After all, Gordon Brown swore himself into office with a pledge towards a massive skills upgrade for the country, to keep its labour force globally competitive in the years to come - especially against India and China.Britain is now extremely concerned with the poor level of its school-leavers, and industry is rather fed up with the basic skills they get from graduating job-seekers. Business organisations have called the schooling system a ‘national scandal’ and ‘a nightmare for businesses’.
UK’s apex industry association, the Confederation of British Industry, in its 2007 employment trends survey found that 52% of employers are dissatisfied with the basic literacy of school leavers, 59% with their basic numeracy.
The UK government has launched a huge programme, signing up employers to ‘upgrade’ employee skills with workplace training; naturally businesses are not thrilled with the idea, claiming that the private sector is being made to pay for the mistakes of the school system.
The CBI survey suggested 86% of employers think improving maths and English skills should be the government’s top priority. The UK has set a target for 95% functional literacy in ten years, with a focus on the three ‘Rs’, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.
So my advice to the all those back home affected by this, is stop whingeing to the press or paying immigration lawyers; sign up for an English language course instead. After all, if you can do Maths, and you can speak English, you’ll have an advantage over a lot of the locals once you do get here.
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