Should immigrants speak English before moving to the UK, or any other English speaking Nation?

with out any doubt they should speak english or at least be engaged in classes to speak our langauge. as we shopuld thiers if we were to go to their country. it is imparitive in order to intergrate fully with us. this should be made law

I agree 100%. If they do not want to speak the language of the land, they can GO HOME.

Steve is wrong in his assessment, showing his own ignorance and prejudice. If someone is willingly emigrating to another country, there is obviously a reason. Once there, they should do their best to assimilate, and that would obviously start with speaking, or learning to speak the language. It's idiotic to state otherwise.

By the way, Steve, I speak 3 languages, and can understand some others. It's not that difficult if someone puts an effort in to it. I have a brother that speaks 7, mainly because he actually TRIES. Why can't everyone else try to at least learn a second language? Isn't that the LEAST they can do for their new country?

Before??? That would depend on if they live in a country that has English speaking classes. Some countries may not. After if their setting up permanent residence then yes the must learn to speak English. If I were to move to Italy I would learn Italian.

Let's go way back into history to the time of Homo erectus and Neanderthals. All of us were at one point of history descendants of immigrants or immigrants ourselves. It is the nationalist ideology that tries to assign us to certain locations around the world. This is why nationalists seem ridiculous most of the time, they are only driven by hatred to different nations.

i think it would be a logic thing to do, at to know the basics and hold a simple conversation.

I think that if you plan to live in another country then why wouldn't you know enough about it to get around and co-exist with the natives?!

My mom and dad didn't know english when they came to the states (they spoke spanish), but they enrolled in classes to learn it, and now i think they speak it better then some which english is their first language.

here in the states we have a big problem with immigrants coming and holding onto their home language. We end up with entire population of an area with very limited English usage. I don't know if forcing someone to speak English works or not, but I wish you better success than we have had in the US.

YES!!!!! IF YOU MOVE TO A COUNTRY YOU SHOULD LEARN THE LANGUAGE. America is going soft peoplecome to this great country and now those of us who speak english have to learn a second, third or maybe even a fourth language because the little immagrant doesn't speak english and he needs time to learn. Screw that they should make a law that states if you want to move to a country you MUST learn to speak, read and write the native language

I think that if they are going to try and work here then they should be able to speak common English. On the other hand, if they are working in a factory then i guess they don't have to. It does annoy me when I go to a gas station and the person doesn't know what I am saying.

Before moving to an English-speaking country...yes, at least a little bit...and then become fluent once you move there. My family immigrated to the U.S. legally and learned English right away.

I also cannot stand it when Hispanics expect me to speak Spanish. Just last week, I was transferring planes in Houston, and this Hispanic lady comes up to me and speaks Spanish to me...she was so pissed off I couldn't understand her. LOL.

Yes. In every other country in the world, if you move there and want to set up permanent residence you would have to learn the language, or at the very least be able to understand what is going on. In the U.S. however people come in from other countries and demand we accomodate THEM! What a bunch of garbage. Now there are even stores that have all of their signs in Spanish as well as English. I'll bet that if I were to go to Mexico I wouldn't find that! If you want to move to a country where the dominant language spoken in English, at the very least be able to function.

Before I get all kinds of thumbs down for my opinion, my grandmother and grandfather came here in the early 1930's as small kids from Hungary and Germany. Both of them didn't even question the fact that they had to learn English, and up until they passed away they felt the same way, that anyone coming into the country should also learn English. They came into the country LEGALLY and worked to provide for their families, why can't everyone who wants to come here do that?

And Steve S, are you telling me that if I moved to Mexico I would not be expected to learn Spanish? Or if I moved to Germany, or Hungary, or Japan not learn those languages? No, that is not the case. If an American or Britan moves to another country, they are EXPECTED to learn the language, so why should it not be that way here? I for one would want to learn the language so I could survive.

What a good idea! Of course British migrants would then be obliged to learn the language of the country to which they migrate. Now that woulod be interesting!

I object to your including asylum seekers. They normally don't have time to learn a foreign language when bloody revolution starts in their home country.

Hang about, stop shooting at me, I've only got to level four of my English course!