It would so much better for the job market if we as Europeans could make an effort to really make English THE common language. And I say as Italian, we are decades beyond on this but in many other countrified is not much better..
What a load of horse shit. If you move to another country, you should be making every effort to learn and speak the local language. Don’t expect the locals to adapt to you.
And people wonder why London is the tech and finance hub of Europe. It pays when everyone knows your language.
Continental Europe has tended to put a high premium on people speaking the local language in migration and residency issues. Language competency is often the central part of citizenship exams.
While, to some degree, this is understandable – I mean it is a very basic thing to know the local language – it is also hugely problematic. Continental Europe struggles to attract talent, as most of the planet’s high-skilled individuals know local languages+English, due to the widespread switch to English as a global *lingua franca.* Those who are skilled enough will be able to move anywhere, bur will favor Anglophone countries simply because they don’t need to bother with more languages.
As most countries in Europe have now *de facto* decided that immigration is a big part of their workforce/demographic strategies, they need to address this elephant, regardless of how much language is perceived by voters as **the** basic indicator of integration. If it was, France would be an example of successful integration. It is not. Cultural aspects and most importantly skills matter more.
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It would so much better for the job market if we as Europeans could make an effort to really make English THE common language. And I say as Italian, we are decades beyond on this but in many other countrified is not much better..
What a load of horse shit. If you move to another country, you should be making every effort to learn and speak the local language. Don’t expect the locals to adapt to you.
And people wonder why London is the tech and finance hub of Europe. It pays when everyone knows your language.
Continental Europe has tended to put a high premium on people speaking the local language in migration and residency issues. Language competency is often the central part of citizenship exams.
While, to some degree, this is understandable – I mean it is a very basic thing to know the local language – it is also hugely problematic. Continental Europe struggles to attract talent, as most of the planet’s high-skilled individuals know local languages+English, due to the widespread switch to English as a global *lingua franca.* Those who are skilled enough will be able to move anywhere, bur will favor Anglophone countries simply because they don’t need to bother with more languages.
As most countries in Europe have now *de facto* decided that immigration is a big part of their workforce/demographic strategies, they need to address this elephant, regardless of how much language is perceived by voters as **the** basic indicator of integration. If it was, France would be an example of successful integration. It is not. Cultural aspects and most importantly skills matter more.