Circular labour mobility and language skills
October 11, 2010
Two recent news items about Ireland’s low language proficiency catch the eye. They have important cultural and economic implications as we try to escape from this deep recession.
Irish primary schools have much the lowest level of foreign language tuition in the European Union, while tuition at secondary level has declined, according to a Eurostat report. In the EU, 79 per cent of pupils at primary level and 83 per cent of those in upper secondary level general programmes are studying a foreign language, overwhelmingly English. A second foreign language was studied by 10 per cent of pupils at primary level and 39 per cent at upper secondary level, with French, German and Russian the most common. In Ireland, 3 per cent of primary pupils studied a language other than Irish, while at upper secondary level the numbers were 58 per cent and 17 per cent. Research on Polish migration to Ireland by a Trinity College Dublin team shows the newcomers have upgraded levels of skills in the Irish labour force.
But Irish workers’ monolingualism means they still have a long way to go to compete with other Europeans. Everyone in Europe has English now, so it’s no advantage. Irish people are going to need another major language to compete with their European counterparts, according to lead researcher James Wickham. Their report shows a new pattern of circular labour mobility emerging from EU enlargement. Polish and other migrant workers from central and eastern Europe now have freedom to move across borders and between jobs without labour permits. While many have returned to Poland, others intend to use their skills and language competence in Canada, Australia and the United States, where they will, in due course, compete with Irish emigrants. They are also better equipped to compete throughout Europe, since many also speak German, French and Russian. The huge surge in emigration from Ireland is predominantly to the English speaking world rather than to countries where a second language would be required, even allowing for the fact that fewer jobs are available there. The Celtic Tiger boom drew us back to the Anglosphere culturally as well as ideologically.
During those years too little thought was given to the importance of developing supplementary linguistic skills, on the assumption that speaking English conveyed a straightforward economic advantage. Recognising that, other Europeans have concentrated on learning English over the last 15 years. It is by far the preferred second language at primary and secondary levels. Eurobarometer surveys in 2001 and 2006 showed those agreeing that everyone in the EU should be able to speak one of its languages in addition to their mother tongue increasing from 71 per cent to 84 per cent.
It is a very sensitive matter for the French, who have seen their language become steadily less popular than English. Despite their efforts to gather official EU support for two foreign languages, so that they could compete, most EU citizens think English is preferable as a common language and act on that belief individually and educationally. Language proficiency lags behind these aspirations, of course. Self-assessment surveys show an uneven picture, with only 13 per cent saying they can understand and produce a wide range of demanding texts and use the second language flexibly. Sixteen per cent can describe experiences and events fairly fluently and are able to produce a simple text; 30 per cent can understand and use the most common and everyday expressions about familiar things and situations, while 38 per cent say they have no such proficiency. On the assumption that people do not learn a second language unless they think they will really have to use it these figures are expected to increase within the EU over coming years.
English is fast becoming a global language as well as a second European one; estimates show it is spoken in one way or another by about a quarter of humanity. By going global it is also transformed beyond the transmission belt of Anglo-American culture and ideology critics complain about. This is not necessarily a zero-sum game in which languages are displaced, but one that enlarges horizons by creating additional means of communication, in which a second language helps the first survive. The emerging EU language regime has been described as a 2+/- system by the political scientist David Laitin, based on his research in the Baltic states. English is a second language for them, Russian often a third and German more and more a substitute. But Ireland (2-1) is stubbornly monolingual, the UK even more so.
The gap between belief and practice will give Irish people a continuing advantage while that catching up takes place throughout the EU. It is surely time to revisit the language issue here and not solely in the context of the zero-sum game between English and Irish. Studying another language with Irish at primary level might help reanimate that language, as might greater linguistic proficiency at secondary and tertiary level and in adult life. We too may find we really will have to do that in coming years for cultural as well as economic recovery.
The Irish Times – Paul Gillespie
9 Deireadh Fómhair 2010
