LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of a “lazy and misguided” approach after warning that Muslim women who fail to improve their English language skills could be deported as part of a drive to build community integration and counter extremism.
The Prime Minister warned that not speaking the language adequately could make people “more susceptible” to the recruitment messages of groups like the Islamic State (IS) though there was no “causal link”.
Soon after his controversial comments, David Cameron faced a backlash from Muslim groups and former Cabinet minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi for linking the issue of English language skills to extremism.
The PM said during a visit to Islamic centre in Leeds: “The evidence is that there are some 40,000 women in our country who really don’t speak any English at all and, perhaps altogether, some 190,000 with very poor English. I think it’s quite right to say to people who come to our country that there are many rights that you have here – it’s a fantastic country to live in – but there are also obligations that we should put on people who come to our country, and chief amongst them should be obligations to learn English because then you can integrate, you can take advantage of the opportunities here and you can help us to build the strong country that we want.”
Sayeeda Warsi the former Tory chairman who was the first female Muslim Cabinet minister, welcomed the new money for language teaching, claiming it had been a mistake to cut funding for English tuition while she was in government.
But she condemned the way the measure had been announced: “This lazy and misguided linking, and what I saw once again as stereotyping of British Muslim communities, I felt took away from what was a positive announcement.”
She was of the view, “My parents came to this country with very little English – my mum’s English still isn’t great, even though she has been to English language classes. They didn’t necessarily identify with a Western culture but they absolutely had the right values to bring up five girls, make sure that they were educated and made a contribution to British society.
“So I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatise communities.”
She added: “What we should be saying to women is, ‘we will give you every opportunity to learn, we will encourage you, support you, that it is a requirement for you to obtain British citizenship’.
