"At the same time that the Howard government is talking about making English language compulsory before new migrants can apply for Australian citizenship, it continues to drastically cut government funding to the very English language courses and programs that have traditionally been available to new migrants under the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)" Maria Vamvakinou said.
"This government is saying one thing, and then doing exactly the opposite. It is putting all the onus on new migrants to learn English, and yet at the same time, it is defunding and scrapping those English language courses that have traditionally been available to new migrants to help them learn English."
"I believe strongly that new migrants in Australia should be given the opportunity to learn English. But the government can't expect new migrants to learn English if it's not providing the necessary services for them to do so. Put simply, the Howard Government's rhetoric is not being matched by its actions."
"The Howard Governemnt needs to ensure that new migrants to Australia learn English by restoring the very same English language services that it has been defunding and dismantling since it first came into office ten years ago."
"So far, the Howard Government has cut funding to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) by $10.8 million. As it stands, only 11% of people who complete the Adult Migrant English Program leave with a working knowledge of English.
"These figures are hardly a measure of success when it comes to the Howard governments own record on English language services for new migrants."
"To make matters worse, the Howard government has also cut core funding to Migrant Resource Centres (MRC) across Australia, whose traditional role has been to provide assistance to migrants as they integrate into mainstream society" Maria Vamvakinou said.
"Migrant Resource Centres have been extremely successful in helping new migrants settle and integrate into Australian society, but instead of supporting them, as logic would say the Howard Government ought to do, the government continues to undermine them, especially through its ongoing restructuring programs that have seen numerous Migrant Resource Centres defunded."
"This year, the Howard Government cut core funding to all Migrant Resource Centres across Australia, and replaced it with the Settlement Grants Programme (SGP), a project based funding scheme that offers no certainty to MRC's that they will receive funding for their programmes from one year to the next. This uncertainty affects the quality and longevity of the programmes that Migrant Resource Centres offer to new migrants."
"The Howard Government's re-structuring of the Settlement Services programme has reduced funding to many MRC's. Many qualified and multi-lingual staff have been lost as a result."
"In addition to learning English, new migrants face many other challenges and pressures when they enter a new country. Like the rest of us, they face the pressures of finding work as quickly as possible, of being able to pay the bills and put food on the table, and of finding suitable schools for their children to go to and suitable childcare arrangements. As countless Australians already know and have experienced, these pressures have only become harder under the Howard government."
Media Contact: Alex Kouttab 0417 541 465
