Takeaway Heritage: Kambis

Episode 26

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Our Takeaway Heritage series continues with a feature on Kambis, a Lebanese restaurant and takeaway on the Brighton and Hove border. We talk to a chef, a manager and a waiter to find out more about the culture behind the counter.

Takeaway Heritage documented 35 stories which reveal the hidden history of restaurants, cafes and takeaways run by migrants in Brighton and Hove. It is about the life stories of the workers, the owners and the customers and what these stories can tell us about migration and integration in the UK today. You can read all the stories in the book.

“I am qualified as a dental technician. I want always to get work. Especially something to do with art, as I am musician. Making tooth was kind of art for me, carving or using all different types of wax or metal alloys, it was interesting and enjoyable. I worked for a few years in Syria. Finding a job in that field was very hard for me as I had to have an English qualification which I went for a year nearly.” -Haval-

The issue of non-transferrable qualifications is a huge barrier to refugee integration. Under UK laws, many professional degrees from overseas universities are not deemed to be equivalent to British universities, even though many of those universities were established in colonial times and adopted the British educational system. 

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Episode 26