[lg policy] Foreign Spouses and Language Testing in the UK

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

The granting of differential rights to live with a spouse depending on whether you speak English or not is appalling, managing to combine racism and classism. Requiring English tests for students is also pretty daft given that many of them come to the UK in order to learn English.

I can see why sham marriages and sham students need to be detected but how testing English would promote authenticity is unclear indeed! (BTW my non-British husband had to demonstrate in two interviews that we were a real marriage despite his excellent English!)

Anthea
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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>>
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________________________________
From: lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu [lgpolicy-list-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Gareth Price [garethowenprice at gmail.com]
Sent: 10 June 2010 17:02
To: lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: [lg policy] Foreign Spouses and Language Testing in the UK


>>From the UK Daily Telegraph, below. (For non-UK readers, the Daily Telegraph is a fairly right-leaning publication, hence the slightly bizarre claim that English language competence is somehow linked to 'sham' marriages ...)

Foreign spouses must learn English before they come to UK
Tens of thousands of foreigners who want to marry Britons will have to learn English before they arrive, it will be announced today.


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