British Labor Party Leader Proposes That All New Immigrants Must Speak English

In an attempt by the Labor Party to present a harder line on immigration prior to the British general election in May this year, Ed Miliband, the Labor Party leader, said that new immigrants to Britain must know how to speak English.

He added that the future Labor government will pass laws to make sure that health workers would be speaking English well enough before they would be allowed to work in the healthcare sector and that there would be regulators to enforce the rules. He said that is it crucial for paramedics, nurses and doctors working in the National Health Service (NHS) to be able to properly communicate with patients.

The Labor Party leader is presenting a harder stance, to shed the impression that his party was lenient on immigration and that it was too cautious in the past to take a firm stand on newcomers being able to speak English even before they arrive in the United Kingdom.

Speaking to an audience at Merseyside’s Pensby High School, he said that English language skills is expected from any person coming to the United Kingdom, especially from people who would be working in public services where they would be in constant face-to-face contact with the public. He particularly singled out those working in the NHS, wherein a large portion of workers (doctors and nurses) received their training overseas. Based on the January 2015 record of the General Medical Council, 97,915 doctors that are registered with the council were trained in other countries.

Miliband said that he recognizes the contribution given by these overseas-trained medical practitioners to his country but he still insists that the people filling these positions should have the proper English language skills to communicate clearly with the people they will provide care for in tandem with their right medical skills.

The Labor Party is taking this hard line approach to immigration requirements as immigration increased five times after some countries in Eastern Europe joined the EU and thus earned the right to work and live in the UK under the Union’s rules regarding freedom of movement.

Labor Party detractors are saying that there is nothing new about their pronouncements and that they have no new ideas to promise the citizens of Britain. They are saying that it was the Labor Party that paved the way for the massive increase in migration.

According to the Migrants Rights Network’s Chief Executive, Don Flynn, requiring new immigrants to learn English is a red herring, because it is already a fact that people migrating to the UK want to learn the English language. Data show that about 70 percent of the people learning a foreign language is taking up English, thus it could be concluded that there is no need to force them to learn the language.

Image credit: Ed Miliband by Harry Hitchens under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.