Why do British immigrants need to take an English test?

(The writer is a director of Li Zhenju Law Firm in the UK. Li Zhenju will continue to analyze and comment on various legal issues in Britain for Chinese in the future. As soon as it was mentioned that immigration officers also needed an English test, the Ministry of the Interior announced that it would legislate. From this year128, all immigrants applying for permanent residence must pass the "British life" test; At the same time, the government plans to improve the requirements of English conversation and listening, which need to meet the EU standard level B 1 or above. Permanent residents need to reach the same level when applying for British citizenship in the future. To apply for permanent residence in English, you need to reach the level of EU B 1 and notify our "first-class" customers in real time. They are all first-class visa clients in the British immigration scoring system, and they are also regarded as first-class clients in my law firm, so they are called "first-class" for short. The customer is a little angry: "Why are you targeting us? Does the Home Office know how much we have invested in Britain? Not only invested 1 million pounds in some projects with little return, but also bought a house and a car; Even sweeping the streets has driven the British economy! Do you want us to go to England? I tried to defend the British government (unfortunately, I can't recover the defense fee from the Home Office): the government has actually considered including the English test as an immigration condition for many years, but it has been opposed by many parties and will be implemented step by step. Visa applications for spouses, workers, students, etc. English test has long been required, and first-class investors have always been an exception. This is also a big concession we made after lobbying the government for many years! As early as 2007/2008, the government lobbied senior officials to waive the English requirements for overseas chefs and planned to legislate to improve their English. At that time, I lobbied members of parliament and senior officials of various government departments and different parties-Chinese restaurants to hire overseas chefs. Cooking is a prerequisite, but education level is not that important. It's not easy to find a chef with good Chinese and good English! ! Is this a joke? As a result, after almost a year and numerous arrangements, we took different officials to different Chinese restaurants to observe the operation of the kitchen on the spot, and successfully obtained the visa exemption for overseas chefs. But unfortunately, there is not enough time and material resources to help spouses lobby the British Parliament. Later, although a lawyer filed a judicial review with the High Court for the spouse visa applicant, it was a pity that he lost the case. After that, the spouse visa applicant needs to have the level of English A 1 to apply for reunion in the UK. According to the latest revision of the Ministry of the Interior, after1October 28th, they need to take another exam and reach the level of B 1 before they can obtain permanent residency. British salespeople say that people from China attract people from China to shop. The British government's intention is obviously to control the number of immigrants, and it can also hand in homework to voters, saying that this will ensure that new immigrants can smoothly enter British life and become a part of society. I still remember sitting in the conference hall of the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior. An official in a straight white shirt kindly said to me, "don't you know, lawyer Li?" Do I need to know English before I come to Britain to buy milk in the supermarket? " I replied at that time: "Dear! They do not necessarily drink milk. Our "first-class one" answered me seriously: "We have been deeply integrated into British life. We have no problem shopping in the street. There are not many shops in Britain that don't speak Chinese. You can see bicester. Isn't the whole outdoor shopping mall owned by China? They take the initiative to be diligent and speak Chinese, because they also need our business, so we can't ignore our support for British society! The benefits of immigration can't cover up the political pressure. I thought about it, and the saying "first-class, first-class, first-class" is also very reasonable. However, judging from the current political and economic environment in Britain, it is extremely difficult to lobby the government to give up the revision of evaluating the English level of immigrants. Just imagine, Home Secretary Wen Cuishan recently announced her application to tighten the entrepreneur visa. We know that the economic benefits brought by immigrants to Britain are not enough for the British government to overwhelm the political pressure they are currently facing. Of course, we won't give up. We will continue to cooperate with the Chinese Participation Scheme and other mainstream organizations in Britain, constantly collect opinions, reflect the contribution of immigrants to British society to the authorities, and seek the right time to try to relax the regulations. Any new immigrants who face unfair situation because of the recent amendment of the Ordinance by the Government can contact us, so that we can have more sufficient reasons to fight for the rights and interests of Chinese. (The writer is a director of Li Zhenju Law Firm in the UK. Li Zhenju will continue to analyze and comment on various legal issues in Britain for Chinese in the future. If you have any questions, you can send an email to uk@people.cn People's Network Association and forward it to lawyer Li Zhenju. The information is for reference only. If there is any change in the law, the official announcement shall prevail. Due to the limitation of space, any questions will be sorted out and discussed emphatically. Individual inquiries cannot be answered one by one.