Requiring immigrants to speak English 'breaches human rights,'

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 27 July, 2011 | NA

[marktwain]

A new immigration rule requiring people to be able to speak English to move to the UK to be with their spouse is a breach of human rights, a court heard today.

A couple have launched a judicial review at the High Court to challenge the rule, which they claim contravenes their rights to a family life, their right to marry and constitutes discrimination.

British citizen Rashida Chapti, 54, and husband Vali Chapti, 57, are applying for him to join her in the UK.

The couple have been married for 37 years and have six children together. Mr Chapti is an Indian national and does not speak, read or write English.

Mrs Chapti has reportedly been travelling between India and Leicester for around 15 years but has now applied for her husband to come and live in the UK with her.

But under new immigration rules announced by Home Secretary Theresa May in June 2010, he cannot do so due to a new English language requirement for migrants applying to come or stay in the UK as a spouse. Decision: Theresa May made the ruling that migrants applying to stay in the UK must learn English during June 2010

Decision: Theresa May made the ruling that migrants applying to stay in the UK must learn English during June 2010

The rule, which came into force in November last year, is thought to be part of the Government's pledge to reduce net migration.

But the Chaptis, along with two other couples, have launched proceedings to contest it.

At the High Court sitting in Birmingham, Manjit Gill QC, representing the couple, told the court the requirement was a breach of their human rights.

[dayglored]

It seems to me that if she has been commuting between India and England for 15 years, and has presumably learned English, that she would have realized that her husband would prosper better in England if he could communicate reasonably in English. 15 years is a long time, they’ve had plenty of time to think this through. No sympathy, unless he’s mentally disabled or something that really does prevent him from learning a language, and it does not appear that’s their argument.

[Grizzled Bear]

I encounter Canadians all the time and they have all had the courtesy to learn english.

That's more than most Cajuns will do.

;-)

[hinckley buzzard]

Back when America was serious about its nationhood we had waves of immigrants, and settlement houses and night classes in every city to teach them English as soon as they got here.

[jennychase]

No, Some percentage of Indians can speak or read English, majority can read or write in local language. Literacy rate is 60% + in India.

[muawiyah]

It's a violation of the human rights of the natives to bring in people who won't learn the language ~ if they intend to stay there for many years.

People who do not speak the common tongue cannot hear your call for "Help!" in an emergency for example.

A pantomine world is far more dangerous than one where other humans can be expected to communicate effectively with others.

[jennychase]

Rashida Chapti - Muslim name, must be Madarsa educated.

[muawiyah]

Canjuns were, for the most part, here LONG before just about anybody but the Indians and my own ancestors.

The first settlement site in Acadia (Bar Harbor) dates from 1598. That's the same year Santa Fe was settled. Jamestown comes a decade later, and New York and New England over two decades later. New Sweden is 1638, and so on.

The Cajuns date from 1598 ~ although the formal establishment of the colony had to be restarted in 1628 by Madame Guercherville (there were some bad winters in between, a minor war with an Englishman with a Spanish surname ~ same's as a later Governor of San Francisco mission.

So what is it you think the Cajuns should do? I'm very curious (BTW, I've spent a lot of time studying Spanish, French and Latin, lesser time with Ladino, and a fair amount of time with Old West Gothic. Those are the languages you need to study documents left behind by the original European settlers in America. English and German come a bit later!

[Deagle]

Heh...good thing, that it is the native language for most of Canada... Now the French territories, maybe not so much (They seem to be fighting that today - long live the French, the heck with English - and sometimes I don’t blame them).

[Grizzled Bear]

Jeesh! Lighten up, Francis! It was a joke!

My first duty station was in Louisiana and I’ve found that Cajuns are some really cool people. You’ve got to admit, what they speak isn’t quite English!

[muawiyah]

There are actually SEVERAL French sounding languages that are spoken in Souf' Lawzian. At least two of them are considered Creoles ~ or combinations of two or more languages. One is a blend of Spanish and French, and another is a blend of French and English.

It's that particular Creole that most folks run into.

The French government has provided professional French language instruction in the French speaking areas for people who are interested in that. I don't know how it's turning out.

[marktwain]

It seems to me that if she has been commuting between India and England for 15 years, and has presumably learned English, that she would have realized that her husband would prosper better in England if he could communicate reasonably in English. 15 years is a long time, they’ve had plenty of time to think this through. No sympathy, unless he’s mentally disabled or something that really does prevent him from learning a language, and it does not appear that’s their argument.

This is likely a deliberate test case, designed to be as sympathetic as they can make it. I wonder if they are muslims? This could be a bit of "lawfare" (war by using our western laws against the west) to insure that colonization of the west can easily continue.

[freekitty]

This is BS

[Ramius]

You wanna “breach” human rights? Let people immigrate and keep them from learning the local language. It’s a guarantee that they will be stuck as a second-class citizen for the rest of their lives.

Immigrants ~must~ learn the local language for their ~own~ benefit. To allow otherwise is just disguising racism as “multiculturalism”. It’s not doing anybody any favors.

[NikkiB]

Immigrants are welcome to prove competency in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic. See how humane? Three options! I personally suggest English as Welsh looks like someone threw a bunch of letters into a bag and pulled them out at random to create a word. No offense to the Welsh.

[Polybius]

So it’s a “human right” to live wherever you want but not have to learn the language.

The issue in this case is not "learning" the language.

The ruling in this case requires every immigrant to have already learned the language before they ever set foot in the country. ..... Even if they had been married to a legal British resident for over 30 years.

In my own family, that would not have been a problem. My grandfather earned a doctorate degree from an American university in 1907 and every adult in my family studied in the U.S. and was perfectly fluent in English before they ever came to the U.S. as refugees from Castro's Cuba in 1960.

However, how many Americans can say that their immigrant ancestors could already speak English when they set foot on Ellis Island in the late 19th Century or the early 20th Century?

Unless they were Irish or British, very few, I would guess.

By the criteria now in place in the U.K. because of this ruling, the vast majority of the immigrant ancestors of just about every American with Polish, German, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, Russian, Jewish, Dutch, Greek, Swiss or Austro-Hungarian ancestry would have been denied entry into the U.S.

"My German-Swiss father, William Rickenbacker, did not know how to already speak English before he came to the U.S."

"My German grandfather, Charles Henry Nimitz, did not know how to already speak English before he came to the U.S."

"My Italian father, Giuseppe DiMaggio, did not know how to already speak English before he came to the U.S."

Did one of your ancestors come through Ellis Island? Did they already speak English before he/she came to the U.S.?

[proudtobeanamerican1]

I like this. If they didn’t require this, then they would be suing that every business they went in didn’t “provide” service in their native language at the expense of the business owner. This would be a civil right to have translation provided.

So many slippery slopes we are sliding down.

[newzjunkey]

100% Irrelevant.

There are 312 million in the United States today. It was 63 million when Ellis Island opened, just 20% of today's population.

We should NOT be held hostage to immigration policies of the 19th century.

Similiarly, all nations should evaluate immigration policy on their current circumstances and with an eye towards their future.

There's between 500 million and 1.8 billion first or second language English speakers in the world.

That's a HUGE pool upon which to draw.

[newzjunkey]

I like this. If they didn’t require this, then they would be suing that every business they went in didn’t “provide” service in their native language at the expense of the business owner. This would be a civil right to have translation provided.

In other words the UK would become like California.

[Greysard]

People who do not speak the common tongue cannot hear your call for "Help!" in an emergency for example.

There are many things that they can't do. For more examples:

• They can't read road signs that are more than pictograms - such as detour signs, lane purpose signs, names of municipalities, etc.
• They can't understand verbal orders of police, fire and medical personnel; they can't provide information to them either.
• If they need medical help they can't say what's wrong with them or what drugs they have counter-indications for.
• They can be lost in the city (or in the country) and have no way to ask for directions.
• They can't read the text on most products; therefore they can't buy such products. They can't talk to the sales staff about that either.
• They can't read newspapers, watch TV and listen to the radio; therefore they are separated from all aspects of the life of the country.
• They can't hold most jobs, pay taxes, or otherwise participate in the economy.

In other words they will be forever foreigners in their adopted country, limited to their own language group and perhaps to a few blocks of a city. I guess they can physically exist like that for a while, but it's not a good life. It's more like a prison.

[Molon Labbie]

Proud Britannia, fought the world’s greatest threat and won, only to hand over their nation to multiculturism...