As part of its continuing moves to curb immigration, the UK government on Tuesday dropped chefs and other occupations from the shortage list, which is likely to hit the £3.2 billion Indian restaurant industry, among others.
As part of its continuing moves to curb immigration, the UK government on Tuesday dropped chefs and other occupations from the shortage list, which is likely to hit the £3.2 billion Indian restaurant industry, among others.
Besides banning the hiring of chefs from outside the European Union, the new curb includes other occupations such as high-integrity pipe welders, airframe fitters, electricity industry site supervisors, skilled meat boners and trimmers and skilled sheep shearers, estate agents, hairdressers and beauty salon managers.
Previous restrictions had made it difficult to employ chefs from the Indian sub-continent, but today's announcement is expected to spark renewed protests from the Indian restaurant industry.
Owners and restaurant workers had taken to the streets of London in 2008 to protest against the earlier restrictions that raised the salary levels of chefs to be hired, a move that few Indian restaurant owners could afford.
The home office said the new restrictions on non-EU migrants wanting to work as chefs include having graduate-level qualifications, with a minimum of five years' previous experience in a role of at least equivalent status to the one they are entering.
They will also need to be paid a minimum of 28,260 pounds per year after deductions for accommodation and meals, a level that Indian restaurant owners find it impossible to afford.
The removal of the occupations from the shortages list will effectively reducing the number of posts available from about 500,000 to about 230,000 per year, official sources said.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "These changes to the shortage occupation list will ensure that only skilled workers are coming to the UK through tier two of the points-based system.
"It will allow firms to bring in people with necessary skills without migrants becoming the first resort to fill a wide range of available jobs".
"This government is also determined to get people back to work and provide business with the skills they need from the British workforce - reducing the need for migrants at the same time as we reduce their number," he added.
More immigration curbs are expected to follow as the home office has asked the migration advisery committee to "review shortages across the entire labour market with a view to amending the shortage occupation list", which details the posts for which employers can hire from outside the EU.
The change means the list will now mainly include skilled engineers, jobs in medical, nursing and veterinary professions, maths and science teachers, visual effects and computer animators and certain ballet/contemporary dancers and musicians.
Earlier, the government had said that it will follow a migration advisery committee recommendation to keep open 5% of chef jobs in the UK to overseas chefs but would impose stringent earnings and experience criteria.
But ministers have decided to go further in ruling out any chefs being recruited to work in any establishment that provides a takeaway service.
The home office has also confirmed that those coming to work as a skilled migrant in Britain will only be able to fill graduate-level jobs.
However, 5,500 skilled migrants who came to the UK in 2010 to work in shortage occupations will be excluded by the new rules.
Firms looking to fill jobs which appear on the shortage list do not have to advertise to British workers first, and applicants do not have to meet an earnings test.
The job categories listed as skilled under Tier 2 will be cut from 192 to 121. Officials estimate around 65% of the 8,400 work permits issued last year to workers on the shortage list would not have qualified under the new rules.
The shake-up is part of efforts to cut net migration the number that migration adds to the population every year to the tens of thousands by 2015 which had hit 226,000 last year.
The student visa system will also be modified so only the "brightest and the best" can come to Britain as the home office figures suggest more than a quarter of those at private colleges flout immigration rules.
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