Superdiversity & L anguage: Notes from a social policy perspective

So for refugees or for people who are here to escape persecution, it is very difficult to develop the language skills needed to get on or to gain access to citizenship and a secure future (this is confirmed in our qualitative work around ESOL). Even those who are considered to have a well-founded case of persecution and are granted five years to stay in the UK are expected to pass a language test before their leave to remain is renewed. For those migrants who wish to reunite with their family, ability to speak English or the national standard language is also becoming important, alongside income level. Data from the Migrant Integration Policy Index shows that this trend is increasing across the EU and in fact it’s a vicious cycle – without an ability in the national standard language, you cannot access decent work, and without decent work you do not have enough income to reunite with your family. Read more...