British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a £20 million ($28.6 million) package to teach English to women on a spousal visa, threatening that if the participants failed to improve their English they might be deported.
Cameron is of the opinion that those who speak poor English are "more susceptible to the extremist message," reports The Washington Post. "I am not blaming the people who can't speak English. Some of these people have come to our country from quite patriarchal societies where perhaps the menfolk haven't wanted them to learn English, haven't wanted them to integrate," he continued.
Cameron said that he wanted to build "a more integrated, cohesive, one nation country where there's genuine opportunity for people."
The prime minister also felt that there was a strong connection between his initiative to teach English and "combating extremism," and he said helping people learn English was important "to help people become more resilient against the messages of Daesh. I'm not saying there's some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist - of course not, that would be a ridiculous thing to say. But if you're not able to speak English, you're not able to integrate, you may find, therefore, that you have challenges understanding what your identity is and you could be more susceptible to the extremist message that comes from Daesh," Cameron said, according to the BBC.
The new rules will be enforced from October, and according to the rules, people entering the U.K. on a five-year spousal visa will have to take a test after two and a half years to show their progress in English. Cameron clarified that women on a spousal visa to the U.K. who had children while living in the U.K. could also be deported under the new rules.
"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," Cameron said, according to The Telegraph.
