Why we need to restore freedom of movement for young people to and from Europe - Yorkshire Post Letters

Having taught French and Spanish for nearly thirty years at a successful north Leeds comprehensive I have now fully retired from teaching choosing to leave a couple of months before year end to enjoy the late spring and early summer.

Recent features in these august columns highlight ongoing hostility to intelligent young people from abroad coming to Britain, even when it’s a temporary stay for studying. Recent reports that Labour will have policies in place to repair and restore the relationship with Europe wantonly destroyed by the Brexit zealots always carry the caveat that those objecting to Polish in the park need not worry because Labour won’t countenance restoring freedom of movement.

Both main parties support the Brexit isolationism that has closed off countless social, linguistic, cultural and scientific opportunities to young British people (unless lucky enough to live in Northern Ireland).

I was fortunate enough at my school not to have the uneducated ‘my mam says I don’t have to listen in language classes because we’re coming out’ nonsense many language teachers did. However, such children had a point.

Why work hard to gain a good languages ‘A’ level when there’s no longer a legal way to go grape picking in France or help your uncle resident in Spain for decades run his bar? When the lad from Lille or lass from Lisbon is banned from working in a bar in Leeds for a couple of years to learn English. So, they go to Limerick or Letterkenny.

I remember the despair of educated young people on June 24, 2016, as they realised their European future had been stolen from them. If Labour is serious about a fresh start, then a way forward would be to extend the youth mobility visa at no charge so that young Europeans under 30 without dependents could spend up to five years in Britain and our young people likewise there. Nothing like what we had but it’s a start.

This is one measure that could make foreign language teaching relevant again. One for you Sir Keir.