[lg policy] Australian Citizenship: Migrants to face tougher English language test

Wed Mar 7 15:36:19 UTC 2018

Australian Citizenship: Migrants to face tougher English language test

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   (AAP-Alex Murray)

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After Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's speech in February, Citizenship
Minister Alan Tudge has said the government will seek to expand
English-language tests for migrants.
Language English
By
Mosiqi Acharya

7 Mar 2018 - 12:14 PM  UPDATED YESTERDAY 12:39 PM

The federal government is keen to introduce English test for migrants to
become eligible for acquiring Australian citizenship and Citizenship
Minister Alan Tudge has flagged the idea of toughening English-language
tests on Wednesday.

Mr Tudge, who took over the citizenship portfolio in December’s ministerial
reshuffle, has said Australia’s multiculturalism model is at risk unless
significant policy intervention addresses the issue of lower integration
rates and falling English-language skills, The Australian
<https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/alan-tudge-puts-english-tests-for-migrants-back-in-frame/news-story/0cd4ade4c9c4ddeabdf5edce42db4ab1>
reports.

Mr Tudge says current policy settings are no longer adequate, amid emerging
ethnic enclaves and falling rates of spoken English.

Mr Tudge is scheduled to deliver a keynote address tonight at the Menzies
Research Centre in Sydney, the minister’s speech on Making Integration Work
calls for frank reassessment of the responsibility to integrate.

“Australia is the most successful multicultural country in the world,” he
says in a written speech to be delivered tonight to the Menzies Research
Centre in Sydney.

“But I want to sound a note of caution: Australian multiculturalism is not
God-given and cannot be taken for granted.

“Indeed, there is emerging evidence that we are not integrating as well as
what we have done in the past. Moreover, there are external factors that
weren’t present even a decade ago that make integration more challenging.”

“Our current policies do not address the challenges outlined above. In
fact, there are very few formal requirements that encourage integration,
adoption of Australian values and English proficiency.”

“This is particularly the case where the concentration of overseas born in
particular suburbs is aligned with a considerable absence of English being
spoken or understood,” Mr Tudge said.

“Poorer English (also) means that the prospect of getting a good job is
diminished.”

He says that recent research shows migrants who spoke English very well
were 3.7 times more likely to be employed in 18 months after arrival than
those who had poor English.

[image: Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton]

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Mr Tudge’s major statement comes just days after Home Affairs Minister
Peter Dutton in a speech at the National Press Club
<http://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/peterdutton/Pages/Address-to-the-National-Press-Club-of-Australia.aspx>
said the government was committed to reinforce the importance of English
language in the steps to acquire citizenship.

“I can assure you that the Government remains committed to this reform, and
will work with the crossbench on the basis of a new package of measures,
flagged at the end of last year,” he said.

After the changes to the Citizenship Bill were struck down in October last
year, Mr Dutton reduced the difficulty of the English test – from Band 6 to
Band 5 under the international standard – to secure the support of the
Senate.
Government’s citizenship changes basically White Australia Policy 2.0: GetUp

GetUp has called these renewed effort to change Citizenship requirements as
“White Australia Policy 2.0”.

The organisation actively campaigned against the changes to Citizenship Act
last year and has vowed to oppose it again.

[image: Shen Get Up]

GetUp Human Rights director Shen Narayanasamy said, “Generations of
non-English speaking migrants have helped build our community. Having a
university standard level of English never was, and never should be, an
indicator of worth in this country.”

“As crucial cross-bench Senator Stirling Griff stated last time, these
changes are just ‘formenting hate’. Numerous experts gave evidence at the
Senate Enquiry to demonstrate that these changes disproportionately
impacted migrant women, and created an underclass in our community of
people who live, work and pay taxes here for most of their life - but will
be denied citizenship because of their grammar,” Ms Narayanasamy said.

“Tens of thousands of Australians signed petitions and lobbied our Senators
to stop these changes in their tracks and succeeded. If our Government will
not protect Australia’s diversity, there is no doubt that the Senate, and
our community will do it again.”

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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