Even the census ignores them, but multilinguals could hold the key to Britain’s social and economic futureLaura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Proton: How One Ancient Language went GlobalAs the chancellor searches for ways to stimulate growth, here’s a reminder to her – on the International Day of Multilingualism – that she’s sitting on a huge pot of gold. In 2014, the all-party parliamentary group on modern languages estimated that the UK’s untapped linguistic potential was worth£48bn. It’s £8bn more than Reeves added to the tax bill last year, and if anything it has grown, since Brexit has re-oriented “global Britain” towards customers beyond Europe. Ask any native English speaker who trades internationally: if you’re buying, English will do, but if you’re selling, better to speak the client’s tongue.The UK’s language teaching has been in steady decline for 30 years, and a big cause is a lack of qualified language teachers. That’s one reality. Another is that, o...
The UK's multilingual population, a potentially valuable asset for economic growth, is being ignored by politicians and the census, despite the decline in language teaching and the increased need for multilingual skills in post-Brexit global trade.
