British Curry Industry: Pakistani recruitment threatened
UK Home Office’s recent rule allowing only top 5% of chefs into the country from outside the European Union.
LONDON:
Britain’s curry industry, valued at 3.6 billion pounds ($5.6 billion), is being threatened by immigration rules that make it harder for restaurants to recruit chefs from India and Pakistan, the Financial Times reported. The problem is the result of UK Home Office’s recent rule allowing only top 5% of chefs into the country from outside the European Union, as well as previous government’s points-based system for economic migrants, FT reported. Britain’s 10,000 “curry houses” employ about 80,000 people and serve about 2.5 million customers a week. The restaurants are struggling to find skilled curry chefs from within the country, and second- and third- generation immigrants are increasingly unwilling to follow in their parents’ footsteps, the report said.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2011.
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