Knowledge of English is must to become Canadian citizen

Immigration Minister of Canada, Jason Kenney said on Friday that immigrants must learn either English or French otherwise they will no be granted citizenship.

In the process, he hinted that very soon language skilled will become mandatory for acquiring Canadian citizenship.

Speaking in Calgary at an immigration conference, Kenney said that in order to integrate into the Canadian society, new immigrants must learn one of the two official languages of Canada i.e. French or English.

Minister Kenney spoke of his experience during his trip to India in January as an example of how there aren’t enough efforts from immigrants to learn any of the two official languages. He said that when he attended some immigration interviews in Delhi, he was shocked when he came across a woman who had no knowledge of English in spite of being a Canadian citizen for almost twelve years.

Kenney said that the woman was sponsoring a spouse to come to Canada and he wondered if this is a one-off case. But unfortunately it isn’t a one-off case, Kenney added.

Kenney stressed on the fact that there is a need to renovate the immigration system in order to make it mandatory for immigrants looking to become citizens of Canada to learn a least one of the official languages.

The minister said in the conference that if one is not able to successfully complete one of the two language tests, then he or she is not supposed to become a citizen and this isn’t harsh by any means. He said that it is simply saying these people to go back home and come back only after they have prepared themselves to complete at least one of the tests in the two languages.

In the count of about 250,000 new immigrants admitted into Canada every year, over 66,000 of them come in the family category where it is not mandatory to have language skills. As a result of this, there has been huge investment in programs initiated by the government by provide language skills to these people in order to make them competitive in the Canadian society.

Kenney said that new immigrants who lack language skills do not have the basic ability to compete with others.

He also made it a point that he has time and again been told by citizenship judges that they frequently give citizenship oath to people who literally have no language skills to compete in the Canadian society.