Curry industry bites back - revision of immigration rules should be seen as an opportunity: this is a British problem - it is our cuisine!
14-06-2009
Speaking at The Guild of Bangladeshi Restaurateurs’ Conference and Dinner “Working for the Curry Industry” at the Hotel Radisson Edwardian, Docklands, London on Sunday 14 June Keith Best, Chief Executive of IAS, stated that the difficulties facing the curry industry (85% of curry restaurants are Bangladeshi) is not a problem for the Bangladeshis but for Britain as a whole.
“The late Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary, famously coined the phrase that chicken tikka masala is the British national dish – so any crisis facing that industry is a national British one about our own cuisine.
“In a time of recession the Government is looking at restricting immigrant workers yet this is harming the curry industry. Already, there is no legitimate route for lower skilled workers to come as kitchen porters from outside the European Economic Area yet the eastern Europeans are going home so this pool of labour is drying up and the Government has provided no alternative.
“The Migration Advisory Committee which advises the Government on skills shortages has acknowledged that there is a shortage of curry chefs – but the Government has now asked them to review this situation by September. This could mean that chefs are no longer regarded as a skills shortage – despite the reality that restaurateurs cannot recruit them in the UK. The only persons allowed to enter as workers may be restricted only to those shortage occupations – but that depends on chefs still being on the list.
“This is a great opportunity for the curry industry to gather as much evidence as possible from restaurateurs and submit it to the Migration Advisory Committee. I am delighted that the Guild has combined with People 1st to create a detailed questionnaire which should provide that evidence. It is easy for Ministers to claim that there is high unemployment among Bangladeshis and that 60% of females are economically inactive – yet that may not provide an easy answer. There are many reasons why such people may not fit into a kitchen either through lack of experience or living in close quarters as part of their employment or having to travel many miles to work. I urge the Bangladeshi community to engage in research on why such persons are not able to take up jobs in the curry industry and submit that to the Migration Advisory Committee.
“The people of the UK will not easily forgive the politicians if they destroy the curry industry however inadvertently: the Government needs to understand how the industry works and to be culturally sensitive to the demands.”
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CONTACT: Keith Best, Chief Executive
Telephone: 020 7967 1221 (office)
07785 323200 (mobile)
020 7735 7699 (home)
website: www.iasuk.org