If we want to help poor immigrants, we need to encourage them to learn English. Speaking English will allow them to find a proper job, to improve their situation, and to take part in society.
Today's announcement that non-EU immigrants applying for a visa to join their UK spouse or partner will need to learn English is a good first step (another debate is whether we should ask for evidence that they will not become a burden upon the state). But we can do more to help immigrants. We can stop translating official documents.
The market gives positive incentives to learn English. It is the choice between a no hope job and a job with a future. Unfortunately government incentivises people not to learn English. You need no English to claim benefits. You need no English to obtain a council flat. And to claim those benefits, the flat, and to be assisted in all other aspects of life to do with officialdom, translations and translators are available upon request. Instead of showing people the way to self-reliance and responsibility by encouraging them to learn English, we show them the way to welfare dependency, permanent deprivation and social isolation.
Local councils and their agencies are the worst culprits. From a humanitarian point I can see that translating might be appropriate where a person is in distress or danger. But what to think of a council carrying out works on an estate sending out a leaflet indicating that all information can be obtained in “your language”? This message itself was translated in Arabic, Urdu, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese.
If we want deprivation, welfare dependency, and social isolation, we should continue to translate official documents, and provide translators upon request. If we want to help the poorest to climb onto that social ladder, we should stop translating now. Perhaps some of the money now wasted on translating could be spent on vouchers to pay for language classes.
