Is it possible to gate-keep migration through language skills tests?
We need your help to uncover hidden virtual fences.
Share your test results, so we have more data to prove our point.
Our thesis is: Language testing systems are unfair
Hidden virtual fences keep people out.
And these people have to pay for it.
We need you help to uncover virtual fences. Share your language test results with us, so we have more data to prove our point.
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We need data to prove what's going on.
Our research team found strong evidence that this gate-keeping is indeed happening. The more language test results we have, the more facts will be uncovered.
We need data for several countries and for several test providers. First of all, IELTS and TOEFL.
If it's a lottery, name it as that!
There are countries where immigration is more a lottery rather than being fairly regulated by language skills tests.
People retake and retake their tests to meet the benchmark but in fact, other criteria decide. People pay for being tested, get desperate, lose their self-confidence, do not understand what's going on.
We are here to understand what's going on and want to force governments to clearly communicate the real decision factors in the area of migration.
How to support our work
Share your result
Feeding our database with your results enables us to deliver exact statistics and prove what's really going on.
Donate
Your donation helps us to finance this project, spread our message and, of course, pay lawyers once needed.
Join our facebook group
Be part of our facebook group, read what others experienced and share your experiences.
Our Team
Data scientist and co-founder: Herbert
Working in market research for years, Herbert is a real expert when it comes to data analysis and uncovering relations within data.
"My motivation to be a part of fairmigration is simple: When I discovered how language proficiency tests are used to keep migrants out, I got angry at first. My second emotion was: we have to help these people by discovering the real rules for migration and confront the stakeholders with our results to make things better. Language proficiency tests are big business but based on an unfair business logic. And migrants pay for it."
Scientific advisor and co-founder: Michael
Michael, who lives in Australia, has been enganged in the topic of evaluating language proficiency tests since years. He will support us with his strong academic background.
"Since 1999 I suspected that there are irregularities within migration systems and these are based on language proficiency tests. It was hard to crack the code but together with Herbert we managed to do so. I want to change this big and unfair business into a fair and transparent system."
Investigative journalist: Lisi
Lisi will cover the investigative part of our project like assessing migration regulations for each country. Additionally, she is responsive for our public relations campaigns.
"I want to uncover unfairness. Migrants who want to work should have the possibility to work and not to do language tests, they don´t need, and have to pay for. Many countries need immigrants to get all the work done, but people, who want to do this work, are kept out by unfair procedures."
Marketing & Social Media: Nelly
Nelly grew up in an advertising agency in Austria and partly also in Los Angeles. Her heritage is Irish, and she has had her fingers in pretty much any business you can imagine (Wholesale porcelain designer to theater director to junior art director and marketing expert). Her strenght is finding and communicating the truth of a product or service, making people see and understand its value and benefits.
Community building: Ricardo
As a creative director in change management and e-learning, Ricardo understands the importance of connecting people.
"I've been involved in moving people for 20 years. I'm all about highlighting the silent injustice and using clear messaging to encourage people to join in, speak up, or stand up."
Our charta
There are thousands and thousands of people experiencing language proficiency tests as unfair and arbitrary as these tests obviously do not measure what they should measure. The impression left for migrants is that there is a virtual fence I cannot get through.
In fact, we found strong evidence to explain this feeling as language proficiency tests are used to regulate migration in terms by manipulating results people are hindered to migrate into other countries. The result is an unfair situation: migrants have to pay for each test taken and often they pay several times, visit courses, try again, fail again and do not understand why.
And it's not just a monetary effect. People are affected because they lose their self-confidence, feel the arbitrariness of the system but have no chance to change anything except to try it again. And this is a very expensive lottery they take part in.
This is what we want to change. We want to make these systems fair in terms of: Governments have to unfold the real rules of immigration and not use language proficiency tests as an arbitrary gatekeeper. If it is a lottery in fact, migrants should be informed.
With statistical analysis we can find arbitrary patterns in language proficiency results. What we need to collect is data, aka test results. The more, the better
We promise you to care for fair migration systems and invite you to share your language proficiency test data with us.
