February 23, 2007	Friday	Safar 5, 1428

LONDON, Feb 22: The British government has proposed to make it obligatory on the part of spouses hoping to move to the UK to appear in English tests before being allowed to join their husbands and wives.

The Commission on Integration and Social Cohesion, set up last year in the wake of the July 7 bombings, has forwarded the proposal.

In its interim report, published on Thursday, the commission says that language barriers within the UK are the single biggest impediment to a cohesive British society.

The commission says that if immigrants do not learn English very shortly after arriving, it can be too late.

Foreign-speaking spouses joining husbands and wives can lead to households where English is never spoken – isolating the family from the wider British society.

Commission chairman Darra Singh said the government should perhaps consider testing spouses and workers before they come to Britain, to check they have at least a working knowledge of the language.

Mr Singh said: “Learning English is clearly the responsibility of the individual, but local authorities, central government and employers have a key role in supporting migrants to improve their language skills. Translation should never be a substitute for learning English in the first place.”

He added: “Just as mastering reading and writing for school children opens up the rest of the curriculum, mastering English opens up participation in British society and accessing employment.

“If you can’t speak English – whether you are a new migrant or someone who has lived here for years – you are on a path to isolation and separation.

“I also want to see how communities themselves are taking action. It is amongst first generation immigrants and newly-arrived economic migrants that the issue seems most acute – it is less of a problem for second, third, fourth generations.

“Language support offered to spouses from abroad is therefore of real interest to me – should we be asking whether they should speak English before they get here?”

“While they are hearing about problems with cohesion in some areas, one of the key and very positive messages so far is that people believe that they are living together with a good level of tolerance and that tension is overstated as far as their own neighbourhoods are concerned,” said a spokesman.