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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/11/immigrants-english-second-language
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Who cares if immigrants have English as a second language? | Who cares if immigrants have English as a second language? |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| If folk are going to be cross, they are as well to be specific about what they are cross about. Is it that they encounter too many people who cannot speak English? Or a more basic irritation that so many people apparently have English as a second language, ie they're not local. | If folk are going to be cross, they are as well to be specific about what they are cross about. Is it that they encounter too many people who cannot speak English? Or a more basic irritation that so many people apparently have English as a second language, ie they're not local. |
| The two repeatedly morph into an unfocused grumble about difference and alienation. And the tabloids don't help. "English is a second language for 40% in parts of Britain," lamented the Sun, adding: "It's hard not to conclude that many migrants have no interest in learning English because they simply don't want to integrate." | The two repeatedly morph into an unfocused grumble about difference and alienation. And the tabloids don't help. "English is a second language for 40% in parts of Britain," lamented the Sun, adding: "It's hard not to conclude that many migrants have no interest in learning English because they simply don't want to integrate." |
| Throw in the usual harrumphing from Migrationwatch and there you go; a bit more poison in the well. | Throw in the usual harrumphing from Migrationwatch and there you go; a bit more poison in the well. |
| Let's separate the two issues. There is an understandable frustration when the person behind the counter has no viable English. And it's sad to hear about the small minority for whom learning English never becomes a high enough priority. They harm themselves. Look at figures for deprivation by ethnic group. The more insular will often be the most deprived. But not speaking English isn't really the issue here, as the admirable Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, blogged last week. What we are really saying is that the vast majority of migrants are at least bilingual. The last census indicated that 4.2 million don't have English as a first language, less than 8% of the total. But only 1.6% of the population said they could not speak English well and only 0.3% of the total population don't speak English at all. | Let's separate the two issues. There is an understandable frustration when the person behind the counter has no viable English. And it's sad to hear about the small minority for whom learning English never becomes a high enough priority. They harm themselves. Look at figures for deprivation by ethnic group. The more insular will often be the most deprived. But not speaking English isn't really the issue here, as the admirable Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, blogged last week. What we are really saying is that the vast majority of migrants are at least bilingual. The last census indicated that 4.2 million don't have English as a first language, less than 8% of the total. But only 1.6% of the population said they could not speak English well and only 0.3% of the total population don't speak English at all. |
| So what's really raising hackles is not the number of people who cannot communicate or be communicated with. I think the real bugbear is the increasing use and overhearing of other languages in the public realm. On the street, in shops, on the buses. As I write this in a coffee shop, there's a woman sharing the table, screeching down her phone in Polish. People speak in the language that is most comfortable for them, and there's no denying the feeling of exclusion that can cause: when we do not understand what we hear, we feel less connected to our surroundings. But what's the answer? And transplanted abroad, wouldn't you do the same? | So what's really raising hackles is not the number of people who cannot communicate or be communicated with. I think the real bugbear is the increasing use and overhearing of other languages in the public realm. On the street, in shops, on the buses. As I write this in a coffee shop, there's a woman sharing the table, screeching down her phone in Polish. People speak in the language that is most comfortable for them, and there's no denying the feeling of exclusion that can cause: when we do not understand what we hear, we feel less connected to our surroundings. But what's the answer? And transplanted abroad, wouldn't you do the same? |
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