Immigrants must improve English in two-and-a-half years or face deportation, says David Cameron

Monday January 18, 2016

Prime Minister also says he feels Muslim women should remove full face veil when going to schools or courts where there is official uniform policy

Mr Cameron has privately suggested one of the main reasons young men are vulnerable to radicalisation is the 'traditional submissiveness' of Muslim women Photo: ALAMY

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Immigrants will have to demonstrate how they have improved their English after two-and-a-half years or face being deported, David Cameron has said.

The Prime Minister admitted that the crackdown could see families being broken up.

the changes would apply from October this year to immigrants who arrive in the UK on a spousal visa.
Mr Cameron also said that he felt Muslim women should remove the full face veil when going to schools or courts where there is an official uniform policy.

Currently, immigrant women who come to the UK on a five-year spousal visa have to demonstrate that they can speak basic English.

Under the new plans, Mr Cameron said he would “toughen” up the rules to force them to demonstrate that their English language skills has improved after two-and-a-half years or face deportation.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “When people come under a spousal visa, after two and a half years they should be improving their English and we will be testing that – and that is important.”
Mr Cameron said he was not “blaming people who can’t speak English”, but he was singling out Muslim men who kept women confined at home without a male relative.

He said: “This is happening in our country and it is not acceptable. We should be very proud or our values, our liberalism, our tolerance.

“We are one of the most successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracies in the world. Where there is segregation it is holding people, it is not in tune with British values and it needs to go.”
Mr Cameron added: “People coming to our country – they have responsibilities too.”

The Prime Minister admitted the changes could see children being separated from their mothers.
He was asked during the interview whether a woman who came to the UK under the spousal settlement programme and had children in Britain could still be deported.

Mr Cameron replied: "They can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to stay.

"We’re now going to toughen up so half-way through the spousal settlement programme – two and a half years – there’ll be another opportunity to make sure your English is improving.
“You can’t guarantee you’ll be able to stay if you’re not improving your language. It is tough but people coming to our country have responsibility too.”

On face veils, Mr Cameron said women should remove their face veils in schools, courts or at the border where people need to see their face.

He said: “In our country people should be free to wear what they like, live how they like and the rest of it.
“But what does matter – if a school has a particular uniform policy, sensitively put in place, and people want to flout that uniform policy often for reasons that are really connected with religion I think you should come down on the side of the school.”

Mr Cameron has privately suggested that one of the main reasons young men are vulnerable to radicalisation is the "traditional submissiveness of Muslim women", which prevents them from speaking out against the influence of the radical Imams.

It comes after Mr Cameron asked Louise Casey, the Director General of the Government's Troubled Families unit, to lead "a comprehensive review into boosting opportunity and integration to bring Britain together as one nation".
The review is intended to ensure more people from ethnic and minority backgrounds feel they have a stake in British society and to investigate the role families can play in tackling radicalisation.

Ms Casey is expected to set out the framework for a new ‘Cohesive Communities Programme’, which will "improve integration and extend opportunity" among Muslims.

Mr Cameron has previously said he is determined to tackle extremism and is thought to have been shocked by the 700 people who are already thought to have fled Britain to join Isil.

Last year, parents were given new powers to get their child’s passport cancelled if they thought there was a chance of them travelling to the Middle East to join a terrorist organisation.

Speaking in July, Mr Cameron warned that conspiracy theories are leading to people making Muslims "feel like they don't belong here", adding that Britain "would not let them win".

He said: "For all our successes as multi-racial, multi-faith democracy, we have to confront a tragic truth that there are people born and raised in this country who don’t really identify with Britain – and feel little or no attachment to other people here."

In 2013, Theresa May banned two prominent US bloggers from entering the UK, because their presence was "not conducive to the public good".

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who co-founded anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America, were due to speak at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, where Drummer Lee Rigby was killed.

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