7. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Wales: A community of communities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:15 pm on 28 February 2023.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:15, 28 February 2023

I think it is very important to recognise that 'Cymraeg 2050' is a strong commitment that our language belongs to us all, and we've been very clear that the Welsh Government is fully committed to the 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy. It has those aims to reach a million Welsh speakers, but also, equally crucial, doubling daily use of the language. I think my role—I thank you for recognising the importance of this connection with the social justice agenda, because when I've met with the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, as all my colleagues have in the Welsh Government, it has enabled us to look again at everything that we're doing and what we can do in terms of taking this forward. For me, it has been very much looking at it from a social justice perspective, in terms of, for example, migrant integration. We've commented on that in terms of our being a nation of sanctuary.

Migrant integration and inclusion are crucial, and if we actually recognise that Wales is currently home to around 200,000 migrants, these members of our community already converse in at least their second language, if not third or fourth. When migrants are speaking Welsh, it's a great illustration of community integration, and we are looking at how this can be supported and how we ensure that integration happens from day one.

I'm going, in a couple of weeks' time, to the Nation of Sanctuary Awards, and there are awards for learners of languages—one for the English language and the other for the Welsh language—and I do want to say today, Llywydd, that we remember and congratulate, in 2019, the Welsh learner award was won by Mohamad Karkoubi, who at the time lived in Aberystwyth—so I particularly mention it, Llywydd—with his wife and their three children after fleeing the civil war in their home country. He won the Welsh learner award. Mr Karkoubi, from Aleppo, has been learning Welsh twice a week since September, which has helped him in his job as a blacksmith in Tregaron. Mr Karkoubi said,

'I really enjoy learning Welsh. The language has helped me and my family to feel part of the community in which we live.'

I think this is where, clearly, the commitment to Welsh-medium education is crucially important, but there's a consultation on how we strengthen Welsh-speaking communities. You mentioned teaching. There's a 10-year plan to increase the number of Welsh-speaking teachers and funding for online taster courses for refugees and asylum seekers to learn Welsh without needing to be fluent in English. We have a lot to learn from those who are embracing, and engaging with, the Welsh language. There's funding to give young people the skills, qualifications and work experience to start a career in the Welsh-medium childcare sector, which, as you say, is so crucially important.

Just finally from me, in terms of Ukrainian refugees and integration within Welsh language communities, we have a team Wales effort. Yesterday, we had a wonderful event, where we were actually marking the grim milestone of the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, but we were there to, actually, acknowledge the fantastic generosity of host families and households over the last year, who've risen to help us support over 6,500 Ukrainians who now live in Wales. Many are working and their children are at school—they're learning Welsh—and, of course, we also are supporting them through not just our hosts, but through our welcome centres. Just to assure colleagues and to assure Heledd, from your question, that we are working—. We've closed many welcome centres over the last year. In fact, the first one we closed was the Urdd, and it was a natural closure after three, four months of intensive support, initial temporary support, and then to enable Ukrainians to move on. What an immersion in Welsh that was, in terms of the Urdd. But in all our welcome centres, we are providing that wraparound support and, indeed, as many of them have moved on out of welcome centres, they're certainly being closed in a sensitive way to ensure that everybody at a welcome centre has a home to move on to, and I can give that assurance here today.

But for them, as well, it'll be moving on into communities, into towns, cities and villages in Wales, into work and to continue with schools. But, as we know, so many of them, of course, look to the time when they might be able to return to Ukraine and to be with their families who they've left at home. But for many more, Wales is their home.