Tuesday 19 January 2016

Same old same old when it comes to berating migrant women for not speaking English

Here is a link to a page in a book which reminds us that when politicians open their mouths to reveal something new or significant about migration or migrant communities, they are nearly always repeating what previous politicians, press or experts said before, and before that, and before that.

David Cameron berating 'Muslim women' for not speaking English was based, it seems, on a) dodgy figures, b) the kinds of things said about Jewish women in the 1920s.

Here's the link:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HHtECgAAQBAJ&pg=PT86&lpg=PT86&dq=k.pearson+m.moul+literacy+of+immigrant+parents&source=bl&ots=c6gnuCWOQz&sig=cCrTFA-Igp3VMkEmhNgtCEl9pqA&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=k.pearson%20m.moul%20literacy%20of%20immigrant%20parents&f=false

Note, the two 'researchers' claimed that with evidence like this they could 'prove' that Jews were inferior and a threat to the British. 

What they weren't able to explain is how people like me ended up speaking and writing English. 

That's a conundrum that Cameron won't be solving. He has other fish to fry: how to stoke up aggression and racism. 

Incidentally, the left has been accused of falsely dubbing attacks on Islam as a form of racism. Now unpack what Cameron is saying: if you are a Muslim woman you are quite likely to not speak English. Really? It's Islam that prevents them, is it? Or is he using the term 'Muslim' to hide the fact that he is talking about some specific people who are Muslim? In which case he is talking in terms of cultural groups. In which case it would be a form of racism, if by any chance we were saying that he's discriminating against those people. 

Well, there is the matter of the Tories cutting classes in English for migrants. In other words, the Tories have made it harder for people to learn English, even as he is berating them for not doing so. 

Sounds like racism to me.