Labour plans to axe free English language lessons for asylum seekers aged over 19 from August 2007, despite its demands that immigrants pass an English Language Test to be allowed to stay. Ironically, only five years ago the government declared its commitment to free English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), on the basis that the ability to speak English was essential for full integration into British society.
2.1 million people aged 16-64 currently receive ESOL teaching. Many of them will be excluded after August 2007. The proposal has sparked condemnation and protest across the country. Recent reports from Amnesty International and Refugee Action highlight the plight of destitute asylum seekers, whose applications have been refused and who are forced to sleep rough in parks, public toilets and phone-boxes. Many are without vital medicines even after suffering torture. The withdrawal of English teaching will make their situation even more desperate.
The impact on non-English speaking women will be particularly severe, rendering it almost impossible for them to seek employment or education and increasing their dependence on their partners.
Although Labour insists children will be exempt from cuts to ESOL, in fact they will be compelled to interpret for adult family members. The Children’s Society has warned that cuts would disempower parents and place an inappropriate level of responsibility on children. There have already been instances where children with non-English speaking parents have had to interpret the results of sensitive medical tests, sometimes relating to rape and torture. Without English language lessons, asylum seekers, refugees and low-paid migrant workers will be unable to help their children with school work or participate fully in their welfare.
Labour’s plans for ESOL expose the contradiction between demands for immigrants to ‘integrate’ and the barriers being put up to ensure they cannot do so. Bill Rammell, Minister for Education, defends this racist hypocrisy on the basis that ‘Is it really right that taxpayers’ money should support the learning of English for people whom we expect to leave the country?’
Cuts in ESOL funding will affect not only asylum seekers but also lower-paid migrant workers, as fee remission will only be available to people receiving means-tested benefit and family tax credit. An ESOL course costs an average of £200. Even those entitled to tax credits face an application process so complicated that only an estimated 50% of those eligible actually claim them.
Alyse Thomson
FRFI 196 April / May 2007
