July 22, 2022

UK’s Immigration Minister Reject Plan for Mandatory ID Cards for Young European Learners

P Parliamentarians gathered for a discussion on the challenges the UK ELT sector is facing and suggested solutions to speed recovery after the pandemic. Rupa Huq, an MP for West London's Ealing Central and Acton, served as the debate's moderator and emphasised the value of summer peaks in ELT immersion programmes for teenagers.

During the debate, Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq urged the government to implement ID cards for travel for groups of young students from Europe and to grant some limited work rights so they could find jobs while in the UK. Speaking to the house, she said, “We should be striving for a global Britain, so the fact that we are instead "shriveling up" and erecting barriers seems wholly inappropriate. Students should be able to study these languages here in the United States.”

…our generous short-term study offer will remain and that’s perhaps what the focus of future debate should be…

Refusing to bulge on MP Huq’s proposal, Kevin Foster, the UK's immigration minister, whose Torbay district includes several ELT schools, stated that rules and the use of ID cards at the UK border "will not be changing" and disputed the arguments made during the debate. “Our generous short-term study offer will remain and that’s perhaps what the focus of future debate should be,” he said.

English UK has urged MPs to support the sector after losing 88% of its typical student population as a result of Covid in 2020 and 2021. The group also pointed out that the UK's exit from the EU has brought about new difficulties. It has informed the government that "large proportions" of older students and teenagers from the EU prefer Malta or Ireland as places to study English.

According to its full position paper, the industry, which contributed £1.5 billion to the UK economy in 2019 thanks to UK ELT, would profit from "simple" fixes like those Huq mentioned during the debate. Additionally, it has called for the creation of bilateral youth mobility programmes that would let young people travelling from the EU study and work in the UK.

Posted in News and tagged News, UK, UK ELT, European Learners, EU, Rupa Huq
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