Blunkett: Guilty of offensive language or just delivering some home truths?
Monday, 16 September 2002
The call by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for Asian families to speak English at home was made in three sentences in an essay with the daunting title, "Integration with Diversity: Globalisation and the Renewal of Democracy and Civil Society".
The call by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, for Asian families to speak English at home was made in three sentences in an essay with the daunting title, "Integration with Diversity: Globalisation and the Renewal of Democracy and Civil Society".
But it turned his treatise for the Foreign Policy Centre on the nature of Britishness into a damaging row about the state's right to interfere in people's private lives.
With his customary knack for stirring controversy, Mr Blunkett found himself once again accused of pandering to the prejudices of the right.
Leading the onslaught was the unlikely figure of Keith Vaz, who had maintained a discreet silence since resigning as a Foreign Office minister amid allegations over his business links. He was quick to challenge the claim that nearly a third of British Asian families did not use English and questioned Mr Blunkett's argument that "schizophrenia bedevils generational relationships ... where English is not spoken at home".
He said: "If this was a Conservative Home Secretary he would have been asked to apologise by now." Mr Vaz claimed Mr Blunkett was using the Asian community as a "cheap target" and accused him of making one of the silliest remarks ever made by a Home Secretary. He challenged him to test the accuracy of his remarks by spending the night with an Asian family in his Leicester constituency a city widely celebrated for its record on race relations.
Mr Vaz said: "What David is saying has no basis in reality. No Asian family in Leicester does not speak English at home. In many cases they speak it better than Mr Blunkett himself.
"He has clearly forgotten all the excellent work he did as Education Secretary in relation to mother-tongue teaching."
In Leicester, Mr Blunkett's comments were greeted with something approaching conviviality. Arvind Patel, an Asian Ugandan who runs a Muslim community centre in Leicester, and his wife, Kamu, invited the Home Secretary to visit. Mr Patel said: "He is welcome to come to our house and see that you can speak your native tongue at home and still have an integrated life outside. My parents insisted on a dual-language upbringing and my sons will bring their children up the same way. It is a question of balancing your career and friends with an appreciation of your roots."
Mr Patel, married for 32 years, added: "My wife does not speak perfect English, but she took great trouble to learn it when she came here. We both think it is important to be confident in English."
Their sons, Hitesh, 28, and Amit, 26, no longer live at home but speak a mix of Gujurati and English with their parents. "English tends to dominate and it is only when older people are around that we speak Gujurati," he said.
Mr Blunkett's claims that language was central to prosperity were recognised by many groups although the impact on civil rights raised widespread concerns.
Beverley Bernard, acting chairwoman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), said proficiency in English was a springboard for success in education and in the workplace. But she added: "Any suggestion we can prescribe when and to whom we should speak English in the privacy of our own home is not acceptable. Respect for what defines individuals and the different communities that now make Britain a diverse society lies at the heart of social cohesion. This should be further underpinned by equality of opportunity for all."
The CRE also questioned Mr Blunkett's suggestion, based on a recent citizenship survey, that English was not spoken at home in 30 per cent of Asian British households. A spokes-man said: "We do not know where he got this figure from. We cannot clarify whether it is right or wrong. It is not something we recognise."
Tauhid Pasha, legal director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: "If it is not backed up by evidence, it's dangerous to say this. It backs up a prejudice that Asians don't want to speak English, which is clearly incorrect and can also increase racial tension and animosity against Asian people."
He said some Asian families encouraged the use of other languages in the home to prevent their children losing their knowledge of their mother tongue.
The Home Office, backed by Downing Street, mounted a vigorous defence of the remarks. A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said there remained some communities where ignorance of English persisted, particularly among women.
It defended the 30 per cent statistic as based on "rigorous academic research" drawing from a large sample. However, the details will not be published until later this year.
A Downing Street spokes-man said: "It's not dictating to people what they do. It's simply pointing out the advantages for children if English is spoken at home, as well as the mother tongue." He added: "The Prime Minister agrees it is an advantage to children to grow up in a home which is bilingual."
But Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "The Home Secretary is apparently trying to say something about how people should go about conversing in their own home. That is different from learning English. I think Government, in general, ought not to spend its time telling people how to behave in their own homes."
Professor Bernard Crick, who was appointed by Mr Blunkett last week to design the "citizenship classes" immigrants will now have to take to get a British passport, gave guarded approval to the remarks. He said: "It would be helpful to integration if the proportion of immigrants speaking English at home increased at a greater rate."
He pointed out that in north Wales and Gaelic-speaking Scotland many households did not speak English at home, and successive Governments had encouraged the Welsh language.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The comments have been unhelpful, especially during these times when the communities are dealing with the anniversary of 11 September."
LANGUAGE BARRIER: THE VIEWS OF ETHNIC MINORITIES
By Paul Peachey
Christine Yau, Chinese community leader
Speaks: Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka
"I would say that 95 per cent of the community here speak Chinese at home. This is a democratic society. The Home Secretary might have this idea but I don't think he can dictate the people's choice. But to encourage English as the main language that would be welcomed by most people."
Speaks: Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka
"I would say that 95 per cent of the community here speak Chinese at home. This is a democratic society. The Home Secretary might have this idea but I don't think he can dictate the people's choice. But to encourage English as the main language that would be welcomed by most people."
Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP
Speaks: Estonian, German
"My grandparents didn't speak much English when they arrived in Britain and didn't speak much when they died 40 years later. My godfather ran a 100-acre farm and paid taxes but could only speak six words. Presumably he [Mr Blunkett] would pay the tuition fees."
Speaks: Estonian, German
"My grandparents didn't speak much English when they arrived in Britain and didn't speak much when they died 40 years later. My godfather ran a 100-acre farm and paid taxes but could only speak six words. Presumably he [Mr Blunkett] would pay the tuition fees."
Pratap Ranawaya, 52, head of sales at a music company
Speaks: Swahili, Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati
"What Blunkett says is crazy. I was born and brought up in Mombasa and our language is a bit of everything in the home Swahili, Portuguese, Gujarati. We literally switch between English and our mother tongue in a split second."
Speaks: Swahili, Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati
"What Blunkett says is crazy. I was born and brought up in Mombasa and our language is a bit of everything in the home Swahili, Portuguese, Gujarati. We literally switch between English and our mother tongue in a split second."
Carmen Gutierrez, 34, consultant in learning and development
Speaks: Spanish
"When I visit my parents we speak Spanish. I agree that if we're going to live in this country we should speak the language, but the expectation that we speak it all the time in the home is unfair."
Speaks: Spanish
"When I visit my parents we speak Spanish. I agree that if we're going to live in this country we should speak the language, but the expectation that we speak it all the time in the home is unfair."
Muhammed Anwar, professor of ethnic relations, University of Warwick
Speaks: Punjabi
"One should not assume if you speak another language at home, you do not understand or speak English outside. I don't think language is a problem as Asians in this country are concerned." Believes Mr Blunkett'scomments were a distraction from issues of racial and religious discrimination.
Speaks: Punjabi
"One should not assume if you speak another language at home, you do not understand or speak English outside. I don't think language is a problem as Asians in this country are concerned." Believes Mr Blunkett'scomments were a distraction from issues of racial and religious discrimination.
Shrien Dewani, 22, general secretary of National Hindu Students Forum
Speaks: Gujarati
"He isn't being completely unrealistic but he has to take more care when he talks with respect to the ethnic minority community, and stop bundling us all together."
Speaks: Gujarati
"He isn't being completely unrealistic but he has to take more care when he talks with respect to the ethnic minority community, and stop bundling us all together."
Abdul Latif, 47, businessman and politician
Speaks: Bengali
"If anybody wants to enjoy the UK this person needs to learn good English and understand English culture. But most English people can't speak good English."
Speaks: Bengali
"If anybody wants to enjoy the UK this person needs to learn good English and understand English culture. But most English people can't speak good English."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blunkett-guilty-of-offensive-language-or-just-delivering-some-home-truths-607349.html
