IMMIGRATION needs to be devolved as soon as possible. Scotland relies on immigration, and the UK Government’s policies will do nothing other than harm Scotland’s prospects. And worse than that, I see no reason to believe the Tories actually care.
The UK Government’s approach to immigration policy in recent years has been aggressive and backward. This is not new information to anyone after recent events. The Windrush scandal opened many people’s eyes to the state of our immigration policies and the cruel effects they have on people. People who have lived legally in the UK for years being targeted for deportation as a result of the then Home Secretary and now Prime Minister’s hostile environment policy.
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The debate around immigration has a tendency to get heated, and for a long time it often seemed like those arguing in favour of immigration did so with a half apology baked into their arguments. It seems that is starting to change. Immigration is crucial for Scotland’s current and future prosperity, and diversity should be celebrated, not shunned.
People coming to Scotland add a huge amount to our culture and economy and I am glad that the trend is now tipping towards celebrating that fact.
In August last year, the Registrar General’s annual review of Scotland’s population trends was released. In the report, the number of pensioners in Scotland was projected to rise by 28% over 25 years. It is, of course, welcome news that more people are living longer, but the challenges associated with an ageing population and shrinking working-age population are huge.
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There is massive strain placed on the health service, the cost of pensions grows, and fewer people are paying in to support both of these things. It was noted in the registrar general’s report that EU migrants are hugely important to Scottish population growth. Further to this, on Thursday, the Scottish Fiscal Commission released its latest batch of forecasts for the Scottish economy. It noted in its report that “when the effects of population growth are stripped out, Scottish growth is much closer to UK growth”.
As the Tories take us down the path of leaving the single market and making inward immigration from the EU more difficult, it is imperative that the Scottish Government are given control of immigration policy in Scotland to tailor it for our needs.
This doesn’t just apply to GDP growth however. Immigration also plays a key role in staffing our public services. That is why this week my SNP colleagues and I backed the British Medical Journal’s call to “Scrap the Cap” on Tier 2 visas.
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The Tier 2 visa is the route skilled workers take when applying to come to the UK with a job offer. There is an arbitrary cap placed on the number of Tier 2 visas that are given out, meaning that from December last year to March this year more than 1500 doctors had their applications refused. It is incomprehensible to me that at a time when health services the world over are facing recruitment difficulties, we would choose to reject people who want to fill these posts from coming to our country.
The Scottish Government has already committed to reinstating the post-study work visa if powers over immigration were to be devolved. It is only sensible to let students who have studied here start working here once they complete their degrees.
I don’t believe the Tories are not aware of everything mentioned above, but I do believe that they do not care. Their ideologically based commitment to cutting net migration figures from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands is the only driving force behind their policies, much like their ideological obsession with austerity.
When I hold my constituency surgeries, immigration is one of the main areas where people ask me for assistance. People who have lived in Scotland for years, or who are raising children here, or want to move their spouses here are facing a cruel and deliberately hostile environment and that is unacceptable. It is easy to reduce the immigration debate to GDP percentage points, or numbers of unfilled job posts, but there is a human cost that cannot be ignored.
Under different parties and coalitions we have already seen the good that can be achieved when the Scottish Parliament is allowed to tailor policy to the needs of Scotland.
From bus passes and free personal care for the elderly, to free tuition fees and nurses bursaries, we can see that it is possible for Scotland to carve out a different political direction to that of Westminster. Surely now is the time to argue the case for that different route with regards to immigration.
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