LONDON, ENGLAND, February 2009: Indian professionals in Britain are uneasy over growing resentment among recession-hit British workers who have been protesting against offering employment to foreigners. A wave of strikes has hit several companies, including oil major Total, in Nottinghamshire and other places in Britain to protest employing foreign workers.
The resentment is so far limited to employing workers from the European Union, but Indian professionals fear this may well assume racist overtones and affect them adversely.
Protests and strikes by British workers have been opposed by leading figures in the Gordon Brown government, particularly Business secretary Peter Mandelson and Indian-origin Labour MP, Keith Vaz. Describing the strikes and protests as “dangerous”, Vaz said Britain could not close its doors in a globalized world.