Speaking the language of immigration

The government has begun the roll out of a new immigration system today which is supposed to clear the way for the people we want and keep those we don’t out. The BBC summed the situation up with the phrase “If you are young, solvent and highly qualified then the doors are wide open”.

The small problem is this isn’t actually right. In the time honoured way politicians create reactionary legislation in its rush to ease our fears about swarthy foreign types, they’ve made qcuite a major boo-boo, particularly where the business community is concerned. While those judged as ‘highly-skilled’ – doctors, scientists, successful entrepreneurs – will have no problems, everyone else is in trouble.

“Good!” you might say, “too many of the blighters here already!” 

I would reply by asking if you like curry. The ethnic food industry is a great example of how this could have more damage than the government is willing to admit and how the government is happy to ignore business concerns. The problem is in the new Tier 2 of the system. This is for people who have a skill that we need and can’t nurture ourselves. Sounds like a good idea - except this skill needs to be coupled with earning a certain amount of cash AND the ability to speak English.

Now we get back to the curry (or any other ethnic food for that matter). To make good curry/sushi/whatever you need a skilled chef. In fact we need hundreds of them. But they won’t now be able to get here because they don’t speak English and the amount they are expected to earn under Tier 2 is way above the industry norm. These are not people who will live in broken down caravans and steal Her Majesty’s swans (despite probably knowing a great recipe for swan neck soup), these are some of the most skilled chefs in the world.

If the government doesn’t budge on this then sooner or later ethnic restaurants – especially the good ones – will be in big trouble. You see, unbelievably, replacing a sushi chef with 10-years experience with a 17-year-old who’s only doing it as part of his probation order tends to damage the food quality.

But this isn’t just a hospitality industry concern. I know of one Far Eastern bank that is lobbying the government furiously to reduce the language qualification as it needs to get people over here who can speak their lingo but not necessarily ours. They only want them here for a year or two (in which time they can learn some English anyway) but the government is adamant it’s no-go.

Strangely enough, footballers have been granted special dispensation to come, showing just what popularist (rather than rational) decision-making this has been.