ALTE LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT FOR MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION (LAMI) SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP

Background

A growing number of European countries have introduced or formalised linguistic requirements for the purposes of migration, residency and citizenship, and national governments often require language tests or other formal assessment procedures to be used. One can observe a stricter policy on language testing for immigrants and a shift from using language tests to facilitate language learning to connecting financial and civic rights sanctions to these test results.

By the late 90’s quite a few ALTE member and associate member institutions had been asked by their respective governments or state authorities to either set up or develop a language testing system for migration, residency or citizenship purposes. These institutions had to bridge the gap between their professional and ethical stand as language testers and the demands made by the politically motivated sponsors: state authorities.

Aims

These requests led to the establishment of the Language Assessment for Migration and Integration (LAMI) Special Interest Group. The aim of this group is to provide a platform for language testers to discuss the issues they are confronted with in their own countries and to support each other in attempting to ensure issues of test fairness and their relationship to civil and human rights are properly understood and considered by policy makers.

Activities

The LAMI Special Interest Group has been very active in organising workshops and stimulating debates within ALTE meetings and as an ALTE Special Interest Group, members have also initiated and participated in external events.

The group organised symposia on language testing and migration at the International ALTE Conferences in Berlin in 2005 and in Cambridge in 2008, and LAMI SIG members have participated in several symposia such as the Language Assessment Ethics Conference in Pasadena in 2002, the LTRC symposium ‘Current Perspectives on Language Assessment for Migration and Citizenship’ in Barcelona in 2007, and the Council of Europe Seminar on the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants in Strasbourg in 2008. Members of the group also participated in the LTRC symposium in Denver in March 2009 and the group will organise a one-day conference on ‘Language and Integration: From Policies to Narratives’ in Berlin on 18th September 2009 within the framework of a three-day event, ‘Sprachen ohne Grenzen’, being organised by the Goethe-Institut.

The LAMI group also cooperates with external bodies such as the Council of Europe. This cooperation has resulted in a survey on developments in language testing and migration in the European countries and the publication of a document with the title “Language tests for social cohesion and citizenship – an outline for policy makers”. In this document, guidance is offered to language testers and policymakers involved in setting up assessment programs in relation to immigration, integration and citizenship. Issues covered include the use and impact of language tests, test purposes and validity, levels of language proficiency, data analysis and quality assurance.