Australia to require English test for partner visas
Australia will demand partners of existing residents to pass an English language test before gaining a everlasting visa, its government says.
The controversial immigration requirement, if approved by parliament, would apply from mid-2021.
It would also force the partners of people to prove an even of English proficiency.
Critics have called the change "discriminatory", however the government says it'll build "social cohesion".
"We will require an applicant and a sponsor to have met functional level English or to have at least made reasonable efforts to understand English," Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said.
Recently, Australia's conservative government has needed prospective migrants to handle mandatory, rigorous testing on the English language skills.
A lot more than one-fifth of Australia's population speaks a language apart from English in the home, with the figure above 35% in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
Why has the government announced this?
Mr Tudge said there were about one million persons surviving in Australia with poor or no English skills, which he argued limited their work and social skills.
He said the brand new changes would also help protect vulnerable immigrants from controlling partners.
"In some instances, the husband won't want his partner or wife to understand English. And in part that's for control reasons," he said.
He said "reasonable efforts to learn" would constitute a job candidate taking about 500 hours of English classes which would be available under a free of charge government programme.
