Italian waiters are giving up the dream of working in London due to new strict visa rules which are effectively preventing them from moving to the UK.
According to reports in Italian daily La Repubblica, the minimum salary threshold for a skilled worker – now between £26,000 and £38,700 – is stopping thousands from moving to the capital to work in its thriving industry.
The changes were announced by Home Secretary James Cleverly last year as part of a five-point plan to curb net migration, which he said was ‘far too high’.
It has resulted in chronic labour shortages in London’s hospitality sector, which is renowned for showcasing a fusion of international cuisines.
There are currently 120,000 unfilled roles across the UK hospitality sector – a number expected to get worse in the future.
According to recent research, more than 90 per cent of the 8,500 migrants recruited in industry last year would not qualify under the new £38,700 threshold.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said the hospitality sector has had labour shortages of between 8 and 12 per cent since coming out of Covid.
She added: “The successive tightening of the skilled worker visa means that the route from Europe to fill those skilled jobs have all but been eliminated.”
Francesco Ragni, founder of the Italian expat website Londra Italia, agreed that the problems are only going to get worse.
“It was already complicated — I don’t think many waiters were coming over with that visa. More likely it was chefs and pizza makers who are hard to find in the UK.”
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