Britain to offer language classes to female Muslim migrants

Britain’s prime minister says Muslim women must improve their English to better integrate into British society, and suggests some migrants could be deported if they fail to speak the language.

Arguing that community cohesion is the best antidote to extremism, Prime Minister David Cameron pledges to fund English language classes for female migrants. The 20-million-pound ($28.5 million) fund will help tens of thousands of women facing social isolation and discrimination and emphasize that Britain has expectations for those who want to live in the country, Cameron says.

“At the moment, someone can move here with very basic English and there’s no requirement to improve it over time. We will change that,” Cameron wrote in a commentary in the Times. “We will now say: if you don’t improve your fluency, that could affect your ability to stay in the UK. This will help make it clear to those men who stop their partners from integrating that there are consequences.”

Muslim groups react sharply to the proposal, describing the plan as a blunt instrument leveled at their expense and focusing on the extremist minority rather than the peaceful majority.

The program aimed at women is meant to end what Cameron calls the “passive tolerance” of discriminatory practices and to challenge the “backward attitudes” of a minority of men. Some 190,000 Muslim women in England speak little or no English. Though Cameron acknowledged that problems of forced gender segregation and social isolation are not unique to Muslim communities, he did not mention other groups.

— AP