2 days ago
Diversity and inclusion experts can come to Britain on skilled work visas
Diversity and inclusion experts can come to the UK on a skilled work visa, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Home Office has also safeguarded visa application routes for the vocations of 'poet' and 'blogger' on a list of protected occupations.
Labour has made tackling migration one of its key targets, with a crackdown on work visas announced earlier this year after net migration neared 1 million.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, vowed to ensure that the immigration system was 'linked to skills and training'.
But critics have said that ministers are protecting the wrong professions instead of focusing on importing workers who will contribute to the ailing economy.
Under the 'crackdown' announced in May, a temporary list of 'shortage' occupations was drawn up outlining who would continue to be eligible for skilled work visas.
Among these roles is 'equality and diversity manager'.
Such jobs have become controversial in recent years for pushing concepts such as the malign nature of 'whiteness' – the political and cultural state of being white – and the idea of 'white privilege'.
The profession has been branded a 'plague' on the public sector, and the Civil Service alone has spent £27 million of taxpayers' money on diversity officers in a single year.
More than £13 million is being spent by NHS trusts each year on the salaries of diversity officers.
