Dear Friends:
Immigration allows visas to Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani,etc cooks to
UK. Govt now want to cut down the number of such immigrant visas. They
want
Britishers to train in sub-continental cooking. So Curry Colleges are
being planned. Interesting?
-bhuban
Pickles to serve up curry college in government integration strategy
School to train UK nationals in line with Tory policy of deep cuts in
immigration and scrapping language of multiculturalism
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 November 2011 16.27 GMT
larger | smaller
'Curry college', proposed by the communities secretary, Eri Pickles, is
to teach British workers the secret of perfect pakoras. Photograph:
David Levene
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, is to make a UK curry college
that would teach British workers the secret of perfect pakoras a
showpiece of the government's integration strategy to be published
shortly.
Pickles's "curry college", as it is being called, would see the
government backing a school to train British people from all
backgrounds to become chefs specialising in Indian food as an answer to
the crisis in the £3.2bn curry industry triggered by the Home Office's
ban on bringing in chefs from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
The scheme is in line with Conservative policy to make deep cuts in
immigration numbers on the basis "that we do not need to attract people
to do jobs that could be carried out by British citizens, given the
right training and support".
It also chimes with the position of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and
pensions secretary. In July he appeared to echo Gordon Brown's infamous
plea for "British jobs for British workers" but has since said that he
rejects that in favour of a policy of "getting British workers ready
for British jobs".
The idea is backed in the long-awaited integration strategy being
hammered out between Whitehall departments, which says the government
is to "support British excellence in the Asian and Oriental catering"
sector.
The strategy, which has yet to get final approval by Downing Street,
will see a distinct shift away from Labour's language in this area.
Talk of promoting local community cohesion is out and talk of promoting
integration is now in, with "tolerance" as the new watchword. It
follows David Cameron's Munich speech earlier this year when he
criticised "state multiculturalism" and argued that the UK needed a
stronger national identity.
The integration strategy has taken months to get cross-government
agreement and has still not yet been finalised. But Whitehall sources
indicate Downing Street is taking an active interest and it should be
published shortly.
The draft paper confirms the strategy will be broken down in four
separate strands: establishing common ground; increasing social
mobility; improving participation and countering intolerance and
extremism. Among its proposals are believed to be:
• A new drive against "anti-Muslim hatred" in Britain and a recognition
antisemitism is also growing.
• Events to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee and the Olympic Games
that bring together different communities.
• An online integration forum, which includes a "barrier-busting site"
to emove bureaucratic barriers and encourage different community and
faith groups to come together.
• An initiative to establish common ground with Gypsy and Traveller
communities.
Conservative ministers see the integration as an essential element
alongside a much tougher drive to reduce immigration, including
requirements for new family and labour migrants to be able to speak
English.
After the 2010 general election, particularly the encounter between
Brown and Gillian Duffy in Rochdale, discussion of immigration within
political parties, including Labour, has moved on to questions of
integration, especially about requiring new migrants to learn English
and participate in society.
Outside the integration strategy discussions, ministers have separately
been discussing a new "public interest test" to ensure that extreme or
intolerant groups cannot gain public engagement or funding. The test
under consideration, to be overseen by a cross-government body, would
apply to all potentially extremist groups, including the far right, but
also would target Islamist groups that support a caliphate, reject
democracy and UK political institutions and call for the wholesale
implementation of sharia law.
Pickles's curry college scheme falls under the heading of "increasing
social mobility". An early paper for the "integration and tolerance
working group", entitled Creating the Conditions for Integration, says:
"The Indian restaurant sector has already approached the government to
explore how they can be supported to recruit and train British workers.
Changes must come from the sector but the government will work with
them to identify barriers
Dear Friends:
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