English Language skills, a tool for discrimination against black people and migrants

UK discrimination against Black people, Muslim, Asian people  and other migrants and ethnic  minority communities is  partly based on English language sills. Most of these people are unemployed, have no support to start a business, a not-for profit organisation or charity because of the language problems.

It is also true that if you cannot speak a language of the country where you live, you will face many barriers in accessing services and opportunities.

The  discrimination that  we are referring to  is  discrimination against those people who can speak and write fluently  but not at the level of English skills of the native British people. Unfortunately, British employers, technocrats and politicians expect   migrants’ English skills  to be similar to the British level of  mastering the English language in speaking and writing.  While most British  people are not good at foreign languages, they all forget that English is a second language for migrants, refugees, new arrivals  and other  minority ethnic communities.

Most UK migrants are unemployed , not because they  lazy, less intelligent or less hard-working. Excellent communications skills advertised in all UK jobs is all about discrimination against people who  are not able to speak and write like  native British people.

While it is almost impossible to compete with a national applicant to any job, employers should also know that when migrants ( and refugees) people are  making all the efforts to speak and write correctly English, these migrants  should not be expected to speak and write English fluently like  the native British applicants.

British speaking  accent and  writing style  should not be the basis of qualifications to a job.

There is a need for more tolerance in assessing migrants’  and refugees’ communications ‘skills  by  an understanding that  they  do not need to speak and write like  native British to do a  job, to run a successfully business or to get a  loan.

Does the Prime Minister David Cameron who works towards  full UK employment  understand this ?  

Can he include some important words that are always missing in all his speeches such as ’fighting against discrimination in employment, fighting against social exclusion,  social inclusion, social integration, migrants and refugees’ rights, equal pay, income inequalities; fighting  against racism, prejudice and discrimination?

Let’s be realistic about the  requirements for migrants to have access to the labour market.