UK mulls ‘barista visa’ to ensure cafes remain open post-Brexit

The United Kingdom may consider a so-called ‘barista visa’ to allow young European citizens to work in the country’s hospitality sector - an industry that that employs a high number of overseas workers.

The scheme has been suggested in case the country’s departure from the EU severs young workers’ freedom of movement between the UK and mainland Europe.

The proposal was suggested by Lord Green, an advocate of tighter immigration controls.

Despite the ‘barista visa’ name taking off, it’s likely such a scheme would merely be an extension of the current Youth Mobility Scheme, which is essentially a two-year working holiday visa program.

The scheme allows Australians, New Zealanders and nationals of six other countries  to spend up to two years working in the United Kingdom.

That visa – combined with the Australian gap year tradition – is possibly partly responsible for the anecdotally high number of Australian baristas brewing good coffee in London.

But the proposal for an expanded ‘barista visa’ rose to prominence after popular café chain Pret a Manger revealed it would struggle to find enough staff post-Brexit if EU nationals were no longer eligible for employment in the UK.

“I would say one in 50 people that apply to our company to work is British,” the company’s head of human resources told a parliamentary committee in March.

“If I had to fill all our vacancies with British-only applicants, I would not be able to fill them because of the lack of applications,” she said.

The company confirmed that 65 per cent of Pret a Manger staff came from EU countries other than Britain.

While Australia was opposed to Britain leaving the European Union, Aussie diplomats see a potential silver lining in renegotiating visa arrangements with a country which may soon be unshackled from granting preference to EU nationals.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s former Foreign Minister and current High Commissioner to the UK, told the Times newspaper earlier this year that he hoped for better access to the country for potential Australian ex-pats.

“At the moment if you are a taxi driver in Bucharest you have completely free access to the UK, whereas if you are a brain surgeon from Sydney it is harder for you to get into the UK,” he said.