Global General

Chinese workers in UK eye impact of proposed law

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-12 09:17

While many immigrants are complaining about the country's new policy, some people are happy about the coalition government's cap.

Alp Mehmet, of independent think-tank MigrationWatchUK, said the introduction of a temporary limit was "a welcome sign that the government is starting as it means to continue".

"We need carefully to consider how net immigration will be brought down to tens of thousands - we believe about 40,000 is a realistic target - rather than the hundreds of thousands of the last 10 years, and is therefore good news for all our people, including immigrants and future immigrants," he said, according to the BBC.

"Immigration at the levels of the past decade is in no one's interest."

But business leaders and universities whose sectors rely heavily on overseas immigration attacked May's plan soon after the announcement.

Business leaders fear a yearly cap will "damage Britain's standing as a commercial center, particularly among important trading partners such as India, Brazil and China", the Financial Times reported.

The cap will also "pose challenges" to education, according to Universities UK, whose members are the executive heads of British universities.

Tim Finch from the Institute of Public Policy Research said: "Do we really want to have restrictions on foreign students at a time when the higher education sector is facing funding cuts and is going to rely on the fees that those students bring in?"

Leaders in the local Chinese community have also criticized May. Deng Tingzhu, head of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, said the cap would badly hurt the Chinese cuisine sector.

With almost 80 restaurants and several Chinese supermarkets, Chinatown, located in the heart of London, is widely known for offering visitors an authentic taste of China.

Quite a few Chinese restaurants have already closed because it's hard to find good chefs, he said. It'll be even harder if the government further limits the immigration of highly-skilled and skilled workers, the categories Chinese chefs normally fall into.