Should migrant workers learn English?

[MrVersatile48]

Should migrant workers learn English?
Would learning English help migrant workers integrate?

Gordon Brown is expected to announce that all skilled workers from outside the EU will have to learn English before they can enter Britain, when he addresses the TUC conference on Monday.

The government estimates 35,000 of the 95,000 skilled migrants who entered the UK last year would not have been able to show they could speak the language.

At present, only workers in the "highly skilled" category need to demonstrate that they can speak English before they are given permission to work in the UK. While international footballers signed by Premiership clubs will be exempt.

Do you think skilled workers should be able to speak English before being allowed to work in the UK?

Are you a migrant worker?

Did you know the language before you arrived in the UK?


http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread. ... 0909141555

 

[antitox]

Yes. ALL migrants need to get the language learned to get on board.
Here in the US, the illegals refuse to learn english and create pockets of communities speaking another language, then show up for public services saying, "speaka spanish?" and we have to cough up a bilingual associate to communicate.

No. We don't speaka spanish. Don't wanna speaka spanish. Don't need bilingual pay either. Go back home.

 

[handy]

It's a sore subject here in the States. I think it's because most of us are here because we have ancestors who immigrated from other nations. In my own family tree I have immigrants from Holland and Germany, as well as Irish, who had to learn Americanized English. We get testy about the current 'in-your-face' refusal on the part of the illegals who don't learn English. If you are going to leave your own country to pursue a life in a new country with a differnt language, you should do it legally, and learn the language. Otherwise you are a burden to your new country.

 

[Nikki]

I too have a problem when immigrants refuse to even ATTEMPT to learn English. There are a LOT of hispanics in my community and it drives me insane when I go to the store and all I hear is a language that I don't understand. If I moved to another country I would make sure I could speak most of their language. Heck, I'd learn it even if I was just visiting.