From a report in today's Times (£):
A couple have lodged a legal challenge to a new immigration rule that the husband cannot join his spouse of 37 years in England unless he can speak English.
In a test judicial review in the High Court the couple say that the rule contravenes their right to a family life and their right to marry and constitutes discrimination.
The same report can be accessed without subscription here, and you will see from it that the QC representing Mr and Mrs Chapti argued before the court that the rule in question 'discriminated against people because of their race and nationality'. That is bad enough. But it is worth adding that for a government to lay down what languages a person may or must speak is also a gross violation of personal liberty; it cannot be justified by showing some clear harms to specific others entailed by the failure to speak a required language. Encouraging the learning of English in this country is one thing, and perfectly justified; but compelling it is quite another. If Theresa May and this government wish to 'foster integration', they might think about emphasizing (and continuing) the best British liberal traditions.
