Population Needs and Migration Policy

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 22 February 2018.

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Photo of Graham Simpson Graham Simpson Conservative

The opening words of the Scottish Government’s “Scotland’s Population Needs and Migration Policy: Discussion Paper on Evidence, Policy and Powers for the Scottish Parliament” are:

“Scotland is a progressive outward looking nation ... migration strengthens our society and our nation benefits from the skills, the experience and the expertise of those individuals who have chosen to live, work and study in Scotland. Future migration systems should ensure that Scotland can welcome people within Europe and from elsewhere who want to study, live, work and raise their families here.”

Those are words that none of us would disagree with.

Scotland needs immigration, but so does the rest of the UK. The movement of people enriches both societies and those who move. Migration is good, but it clearly cannot be a free-for-all. It can fill labour gaps—Jamie Halcro Johnston will touch on that—but I hear all the time in my subject area of housing that there is a skills shortage and that builders are getting older and not enough young people are taking up their trades. Attracting people from abroad can help, but we should be training youngsters from here to be brickies, plumbers and electricians; and we should be doing something to attract them to become architects, surveyors and planners.

There is much in the Scottish Government paper to agree with, particularly its seven principles: that migration policy should address the needs of all Scotland, attract the best talent, protect workers’ rights, enable families to be together, focus on what people can contribute and not what they can afford, and be controlled. The second and the last principles are particularly important. Scotland needs to be attractive, but saying it is attractive is not enough: we must make it so. Whacking up taxes on middle earners does not do that, and we will see the results of that in years to come. The last principle is also crucial, because migration should be controlled—the question is at what level of Government.

The Scottish Government paper was written through the prism of Brexit and the yellow lens of nationalism with the intention of driving a wedge between Scotland and the rest of the UK. That was to be expected, but it is not sensible and mature government. Should Scotland have its own immigration policy? We might as well ask whether Newcastle, Merseyside, or the West Midlands should have their own. Or why not break it down within Scotland and ask whether Glasgow, Aberdeen or Dundee should have their own policy? It is difficult to see how applying different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would not complicate the immigration system, harm its integrity and cause difficulties for employers with a presence in more than one part of the UK.

Anyway, Scotland’s issues are not unique. As Doctor Madeleine Sumption of the migration observatory at the University of Oxford told the Scottish Affairs Select Committee last month:

“There are other areas of the UK that are experiencing population decline, or would be experiencing population decline if it was not for migration.”

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce told the Scottish Parliament’s Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee’s inquiry on immigration that devolution of immigration powers to Scotland is not necessary and that we should look at sectoral and geographical issues. We should be able to find solutions. The Law Society of Scotland’s briefing came up with a useful idea, which is that

“Scottish representation on the Migration Advisory Committee would be beneficial. Active review of the Scottish Shortage Occupation List would also be welcome to ensure the list genuinely reflects skill shortages in Scotland and can be updated and amended as necessary to meet the needs of the Scottish economy.”

We should look at that idea.

The SNP might think that it speaks for Scotland in everything, but it does not. It is out of tune with the country on immigration, because the people do not want a different immigration system here. As Jackson Carlaw mentioned, polling by NatCen found that 63 per cent of Scots did not believe that it should be easier for EU migrants to come to Scotland compared to going to the rest of the UK and that only 24 per cent agreed that it should be easier to come here. We need migration—it is good—and I back the amendment in Jackson Carlaw’s name.