Some indications of the number and type of immigrants in recent years are shown in the following figures of employment vouchers and work permits issued:
"
Year
Commonwealth
Alien
Dependents
+
1963/4
243
NIL
288
X
1965/6
232
377
933
1969
289
833
1082
Note: + Calendar year 1963
X
Calendar year 1965
Why the Restaurant Business?
The employment of Hong Kong Chinese in this country has for the last 20 years been predominantly in the catering trade. The reasons for this seem to lie in the obvious openings for restaurants in Britain, in the growing interest since the Second World War in foreign cooking and the fact that the comparatively low capital investment required combined with the long hours of work made it suitable to comparatively uneducated people from the N. T. The success achieved can be seen from the fact that there are now about 1,500 Chinese restaurants in Britain. In the early days, profits were so good that I have been told that the capital investment in a restaurant could be recovered in six months. However, this happy situation no longer remains and rising costs combined with increasing competition' for a limited market have created difficulties for a number of restaurants. The trend now is into take-away shops which avoid the high overheads of a more conventional restaurant.
Chinese restaurant staff generally get good wages nowadays varying from £20 per week net for a cook or waiter in a restaurant outside London to a top wage of £50 for a head cook in a first class London restaurant. Employers generally provide accommodation in dormitories for single men and meals in the restaurant so it is not surprising that few workers seem interested to look for employment outside the restaurant trade.
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