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Hispanidad Futura.....
En Londres la primera lengua de los niños ya no es el inglés
As English stops being the first language of most London children, is Britain ready for the great integration challenge?By Neil O'Brien Last updated: February 9th, 2012 http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk
Neil O'Brien is Director of Policy Exchange, an independent think tank working for better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy. He writes in a personal capacity.
There is a lot of discussion in the media about immigration, but relatively little about integration. Leaving aside how many people should come to the UK, or who they should be, shouldn't we think a bit more about what happens to people once they get here?
In other countries (I'm thinking of Canada in particular) the government and voluntary groups make big efforts to make people feel like they fit in. In the UK we have had a much more laissez-faire approach. By and large it has worked out OK: new migrants developed regional accents, adopted football teams, and felt British.
But it doesn't always work out. Some new arrivals don't feel part of Britain, can't communicate, get stuck in a ghetto, or struggle to get work.
After a decade of faster migration, and with some level of continuing migration in the future, these issues are going to become more acute.
I was set thinking about this because I was having a drink with some teachers the other day. One made the point that in her school roughly two thirds of the children had English as a second language. That prompted me to go and look up the statistics. I think they are quite striking, and tell us something about the scale of the integration challenge we are going to face in the future.
The chart below shows the proportion of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL in the jargon). Between 1997 and 2011 the proportion of EAL pupils in state primary schools rose from 7.8% to 16.8%
But the average conceals as much as it reveals, because variation around the country is huge. In Inner London a majority of primary school pupils do not have English as their first language. In two or three years time the same will be true of London as a whole.
In terms of integration, it is worth noting how concentrated areas of EAL pupils are. The range of variation between Local Authorities is huge. That's significant in so far as the children of new migrants would be less likely to feel ghettoised if they were spread evenly across the country. But they really aren't. In Tower Hamlets, for example, only 22% of primary school pupils learned English as their first language.
EAL pupils 2011 (%)
Highest
Tower Hamlets 78
Newham 74
Westminster 71
City of London 70
Brent 66
Lowest
St. Helens 2
Rutland 2
Derbyshire 1
Redcar and Cleveland 1
Halton 1
What does this mean for schools? There are inevitably greater costs in having to employ more language teachers and support teachers to cope with the language gap. In 2008 there were 1,713 specialist teachers of English as an additional language, and a further 1,945 teachers of ethnic minorities.
However, the good news about all this is that children with English as a second language don't seem to be under-performing. Though behind at the end of primary school, on average they have caught up or overtaken by the end of secondary school. As this paper points out:
"there is an initial handicap for Asian and African children relative to White British children in primary school, but this progressively disappears. The early disadvantage is reduced by Key Stage 3 and becomes an advantage statistically by KS4: that is, because it is associated with better-performing ethnic groups, it is also associated with better outcomes. Many children of Asian and African origin do not speak English at home and therefore do not do so well in English at primary school; but if their homes are supportive of their education, as is commonly the case, the handicap does not last."
In 2009/10, 55% of pupils with English as their first language got five decent GCSEs including English and Maths, compared to 54% of EAL children.
Pupils with EAL are also less likely to end up in Pupil Referral Units (where pupils get put if they have been excluded). Only 6% of pupils in PRUs didn't have English as their first language. That suggests they were less than half as likely as native English speakers to end up in a PRU.
So schools are doing a good job of helping non-English speakers catch up.
But will children with English as a second language grow up to feel British, to get jobs and to feel included?
I think that is the bigger challenge, and the statistics above make me think it is a likely to be a rapidly growing one.
I think we should aim for people who move to Britain to feel British and fit in. I don't assume that this will happen automatically. In fact second generation migrants can become more divergent from the rest of society than their parents. But I also don't know whether there are any examples of programmes or institutions than can be shown to have helped people integrate.
I can think of some things that seem like they should help. In London there is a long standing tradition of supplementary schools that mix children with others outside their community. I wonder if housing policy (particularly social housing) could be changed to avoid people becoming ghettoised? Initiatives like The Challenge, which aim to mix together school leavers from different walks of life, seem like they could help. On the other hand I wonder about some existing and widespread initiatives like Black History Month. Does this really help? What about other groups? Citizenship lessons were a joke when I was at school (I recall having to copy from out-of-date textbooks predicting victory for the SDP in the 1983 election). Are they better now? I don't know.
What do you think might help people integrate? Leave aside how many people should come here. For the people who have already arrived, do you think government (either local or central) should be trying to do more to help people fit in? Or is it up to us? Do you even agree that we should be aiming for new arrivals to fit in and feel British?
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rarecockneyguvnor
28 minutes ago Its very sad that the British establishment have don this to indigenous British people. This is what the British establishment wanted all along really, they wont stop until there is no trace of an English Person left its ethnic cleansing really but i doubt the British state will admit to what theve done intentionally so sad to see British culture vanish why would a Government want to see the demise and eventual extinction of its own people i want to leave this country as soon as its possible.
42 minutes ago History shows
us where this is going to go. BOOM!!!
The Unrest will make Kosovo look like a tea party.
Today 02:57 PM Matters are much worse in Wales. Only a small minority of children have Welsh as their first language. I blame it on uncontrolled immigration from England. I foresee serious social unrest.
woodcote
Today 05:08 PM Like burning homes owned by English couples, you mean?
Today 02:47 PM It's futile. There are too many of them, thus not enough British for them to integrate with.
Today 02:26 PM ''What might
help people integrate?'' When I read that ominous question I get
this hopeless, sinking feeling and just want to put the clock
back forty years.
I wonder how many readers feel like me?
Steffiegirl
41 minutes ago I couldn't agree with you more. I am absolutly flabergasted and quite lost for words......... integrate....... god I could spit! woodcote
Today 03:03 PM More every day.
Steffiegirl
40 minutes ago We're all doomed.......
Today 02:22 PM "As
English stops being the first language of most London children,
is Britain ready for the great integration challenge?"
It means when you go to your local Sainsburys, the staff talk
Hindi / Gujarati etc around you. It means that if you work in a
bank people bond up because they all talk Hindi / Gujarati etc
together, and you are left out, and regarded with suspicion.
But you 'Neil O'Brien is Director of Policy Exchange, an
independent think tank' work in a white portal, so it won't
affect you and you won't see this parallel other world. I wonder
where you live.
Today 01:57 PM It's entirely up THEM to fit in with US. That's how it would be if we emigrated. Steffiegirl
38 minutes ago Exactly........ they want their own little worlds in our country and at our expense. woodcote
Today 03:04 PM But we don't want that. "They" must be helped to depart so that "we" might live sovereign and free in our own homeland.
Steffiegirl
36 minutes ago Oh if only they would all leave.......sigh!!
Today 01:49 PM Mr OBrien We
are ENGLISH in ENGLAND stop writing like a Prat
we are not british !
you may be irish perhaps you have anglophobia on your mind
We "ENGLISH" Anglo Saxon Jute" are sick and tired
of this celtic Media Anglophobia !
Today 01:33 PM Two Futures ;
Worst scenerio , best scenerio ;
This is a post from another commentator .
If the pessmistic view of Muslim immigration to Britain is
correct , the British way of life comes to an end .
Our descendants live under Sharia ; the country will most likely
be racked by civil war and social tensions for the rest of time ;
it will slip from the ranks of the first world nations and become
just another third world cesspit .
But let's say the pessimistic view is wrong . What happens ?
Britain gains millions of unproductive citizens who live at the
expense of the taxpayer , create ghettoes inhabited only by
people of their own kind , commit crime dispropotionately ,
refuse to integrate with British norms and engage in sporadic
violence against the British people , necessitating vast security
expenditures and restrictions on traditional liberty .
And that's the rose tinted view ! That's the best that could
possibly happen !
It illustrates the sheer insanity of the policy of allowing these
people to come here .
Heads our way of life comes to an end ;
Tails we merely acquire an enourmous social , economic and
security burden for the rest of eternity .
There is no conceivable benefit to the British people that can
come from this .
Even the most optimistic scenerio is merely less horrific than
the most pessimistic . "
Anders .
End Quote .
And that's it .
A chain and ball around the ankle of all our future kith and kin
for the rest of eternity until they die out , flee , are
eradicated or all three .
The people who did this , collaborated with them or gave moral
comfort to them are the most evil , morally decrept ,
pathalogical cretins that ever stalked the earth .
We shall not go quitely into that long night . Steffiegirl
22 minutes ago ......... hummmmm I rather liked your views...... made me chuckkle...... but on a bad day I think you are right..
Today 12:17 PM "Multiculturalism" brings as many disadvantages as advantages. In so far as language is an integral part of a culture these statistics illustrate an important disadvantage. In France the concept of "one culture many variations" is more prevalent. This does not deny the beneficial influences of different cultures but accentuates the importance of a common culture binding the country and its inhabitants together. An important aspect of the French approach is that everyone is expected to speak French. An insistence upon English as a common language for people living in the UK with no concessions seems a basic and reasonable expectation. danoconnor
Today 12:52 PM pierrot
No nation or peoples has succeeded BECAUSE of multiculturalism /
multiracialism .
If they succeed at all it is INSPITE of it .
The Chinese , Japanese , South Koreans are not suffering without
it .
And the West was doing very well without it .
The USA was a melting pot until 1965 when 90% of the population
was European , but since the 1965 change in the immigration
policy allowing millions of Asians and Mexicans in , the nation
is racially and culturally balkanizing and will by 2040 begin
breaking up when Whites become a minority .
The White taxpayer has financed his own territorial dispossession
.
Bob Landy
Today 12:36 PM pierrot......as
many disadvantages as advantages......
Errrrrr, what are the advantages?
Steffiegirl
woodcote
Today 12:16 PM The Left
cognescenti hate their own flesh and blood , their own ancestry ,
their own grandchildren ( if they have any ) .
It must be a seething fanatical hatred to drive people to that .
The more we are dispossessed and dwindling in numbers and
influence the more estatic they become .
Today 11:58 AM " Newly
released Department of Education figures have revealed that an
incredible ( 43.1 ) percent of primary school pupils and
( 30. 3 ) percent of secondary school pupils do not have English
as their first language .
According to the figures , there are now almost one million
school children in Britain who do not speak English as their
first language .
The chaos has resulted in some schools faced with up to 50
different languages being spoken among their pupils .
Left unchecked , these statistics mean that within two
generations , the indigenous British population will have been
almost entirely replaced with immigrants "
This article is about 4 years old .
Wev don't have an immigration / integration " challenge
"
We have a state of emergency .
Today 12:37 PM And they have vast ranges of excuses for dropping educational standards.