[EDLING:2198] Today's lesson is to teach immigrants English

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

> >From the Scotsman, Tuesday, 19th December 2006
> Opinion
> 
> Mon 18 Dec 2006
> 
> Today's lesson is teach immigrants English
> HELEN MARTIN
> 
> IT shouldn't surprise any of us that the public cost of translation
> services for immigrants is now standing at around 110 million. That's
> divvied up between councils, government departments and the health
> service, all of whom appear to believe they are obliged to detail
> everything from rubbish collection to immunisation programmes in up to 15
> different languages. Now at last some government ministers and many
> immigrants too, have recognised this is a pointless exercise and that the
> bulk of such funding should go into encouraging English language tuition
> rather than interpreters.
> 
> In some obvious areas, there will always be a need for translation. At the
> point of entry into the UK, immigration officers clearly can't expect a
> newcomer to speak fluent or even pidgin English. And the police and courts
> are quite rightly obliged to provide translation services for anyone who
> wishes them. But it's the discretionary areas which are soaking up most of
> the cash, such as council services and benefits, locally-funded workshops
> and advice centres. Moving to a new country is hard. Finding a job and
> somewhere to stay, getting to grips with local customs and regulations,
> enrolling in schools or colleges - no-one can deny that many immigrants
> are brave, driven people who will ultimately be a great asset to the UK.
> 
> But with all that on their plate, who can blame them for not bothering to
> learn the language when there is no incentive to do so and a translator
> will be produced at the first bewildered look of incomprehension? It's
> like asking who among us would voluntarily pay taxes if it wasn't
> compulsory. The Government has promised to make English-speaking a
> requirement for immigrants but until it uses its powers to stem the flow
> of public money into profligate translation services it is on a hiding to
> nothing. The opening up of the EU has changed our attitudes. The word
> "immigrant"  is no longer a euphemism for black or Asian people, many of
> whom speak perfect English anyway thanks to the legacies of the old
> Commonwealth and Empire.
> 
> Today's immigrant is Spanish, Australian, Polish, Lithuanian - the list is
> endless. But we can learn a lot from the experiences of the Asian
> immigrants who flocked to English cities in the fifties, sixties and
> seventies, and from the misguided efforts of local authorities to
> accommodate their new citizens. I worked in Bradford 20 years ago and
> witnessed the dreadful social results of the informal ghettos. Forget
> integration with the indigenous white folk - even the Bangladeshis and the
> Punjabis wouldn't mix, each living among, shopping and doing all business
> with their own people. A typical language problem would emerge when, after
> living in West Yorkshire for 40 years, a person finally reached
> pensionable age, had to engage with the benefits agency and was asked to
> speak English - for the first time!
> 
> Leaving people for decades without the basic ability to speak the language
> of the country in which they live is not the policy of a caring,
> forward-thinking government or local authority. It is the result of
> cowardice, political correctness, laziness and too much money to squander
> on the inadequate short cut of unlimited interpreters. Equality should
> mean equipping immigrants with the talents they need to survive and
> prosper. Perpetuating the disadvantage of having to rely on an interpreter
> is - whatever the liberal, do-gooding, hand-feeding,
> multi-langage-poster-promoters say - downright racist.
> 
>  As Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on a Monday this year, there
> will be no more bitching from me until well into 2007. For some, this may
> be a blessed relief of course, but regardless, I would like to wish
> everyone, friend or foe, a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New
> Year Prostitutes need protection of law AMIDST the tragedy of the Ipswich
> murders, one of the most poignant statements from the family of
> 19-year-old victim Tania Nicol was "she is still someone's daughter". How
> sad that her bereaved relatives feel it is necessary to point out there
> was more to Tania's young life than her job. And make no mistake, that's
> what prostitution is - a job like any other.
> 
> The death toll so far is no less horrific than if the victims were
> teachers, shop workers or nuns, the only difference being that by the very
> nature of their job, working girls on the street are more vulnerable.
> Their work is carried out in some degree of secrecy, often in dark remote
> places and, most pertinently, where there are no witnesses. If anyone was
> in any doubt about the need to legalise prostitution and therefore to be
> able to provide security and protection for sex workers, they must surely
> now be convinced. Whether that requires licensed brothels, tolerance zones
> or a designated Amsterdam-type red-light district in every major city, the
> law must allow for it. And if delicate local sensibilities or pious
> pseudo-moralists are offended, that's just too bad.
> 
> 
> http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1878312006
> 
> Helen Martin
> 
> Last updated: 18-Dec-06 13:55 GMT