Immigration: Community Sponsorship

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for his question and commend him on his work in this area. The Home Office has commissioned an independent evaluation that is being carried out by the University of Birmingham, which will be published this summer. I can give some early insight from that research, which talks about the,

“ability to count on emotional and practical support from a network of local people”,

providing,

“refugees with an excellent source of social capital that is critical to their integration”.

It is obviously crucial that we work in the most intelligent way with those refugees who have been selected for their vulnerability. If the House will indulge me, it would be poignant to listen to a quote from the young Syrian refugee Amineh Abou Kerech—forgive my pronunciation—who won the Betjeman prize for her poem “Lament for Syria”. In it she says:

“Can anyone teach me

how to make a homeland?”

Let us hope that all these schemes can do just that.

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, due to their poor English skills, many refugees find great barriers to finding jobs, getting housing and opening bank accounts, yet over the past 10 years, services providing English- language teaching to speakers of other languages have been cut by 55%. What plans do the Government have properly to resource English language teaching and make it available to all those who need it?

[Baroness Barran]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. The Government recently published the Integrated Communities Action Plan, which specifically cites working with government and civil society organisations in areas such as English as a second language, employment, mental health and other elements critical for integration.