Scots’ Welcoming Image Suffers A Blow

Andrew Denholm, Scotsman.com, Jun. 1

THE long-held image of Scotland as a welcoming nation has been dealt a severe blow by a new study which examines attitudes towards immigration.

The survey found that 60 per cent of Scots are concerned that too many incomers from the EU’s ten new member states will arrive in Scotland, “putting strain on housing, benefits and other systems”.

Even more worrying is the third of those surveyed who also disagreed with the statement that anyone wishing to live and work in Scotland should be welcomed.

And a similar number in the study, carried out by MRUK, a Glasgow-based market research company, did not think migrants would help the Scottish economy or contribute to the funding of services in Scotland.

The effect of the survey on the image of the traditional Scottish welcome is damaging enough, but the findings also make worrying reading for the First Minister, who is attempting to convince the Scottish public that immigration is the answer to the nation’s economic problems.

Jack McConnell has made his so-called Fresh Talent Initiative a key plank of the current administration and he wants to attract up to 8,000 people to Scotland every year for the next five years to arrest the nation’s drastic population decline—which he has described as the single greatest threat to the country’s future prosperity.

While the survey highlighted undoubted support for Mr McConnell’s strategy, with 51 per cent believing Scotland should welcome economic migrants and 46 per cent believing they would be of benefit, the survey also underlines the significant minority yet to be convinced.

There is undoubtedly a legitimate argument about whether European enlargement is a good thing for Scotland—or if the Fresh Talent Initiative is the right way forward—as Jim Law, the managing director of MRUK, acknowledges.

He said the findings were a warning that the First Minister was facing a difficult task to persuade the public of the benefits of economic migration.

“This appears to indicate substantial minority resistance for the comments made by Mr McConnell recently regarding immigrants being both good and necessary for the future of Scotland,” he said.

Murdo Fraser, the enterprise spokesman for the Scottish Tories, accepts the need to increase immigration, but claims no amount of “fancy fresh-start schemes” are going to make much difference while Scotland lags behind the UK economy.

“People are going to settle in the places where they see a stable future for them and their families. Unless the Executive tackles the fundamental weaknesses in the Scottish economy, then these measures will be largely irrelevant,” he said.

However, concerns have also been raised that the minority of opposition to economic migration includes a core of xenophobic Scots who do not want foreigners coming into Scotland for any reason.

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has long voiced concerns about underlying racism in Scotland. “About one-third of the population still hold some degree of prejudice,” said a spokeswoman for the CRE. “It has declined in recent years, but it is still there. It is not out-and-out racism, rather what you find is a more subtle form.”

It is a phenomenon that the First Minister has experienced first hand after his postbag was inundated with letters opposing his plans to increase the number of foreigners.

And when he launched the Fresh Talent Initiative he made specific reference to racism, claiming such elements in Scottish society were endangering the country’s economic and cultural future.

Last night, a source close to the First Minister said the new research highlighted the continuing element of racism in Scotland and the danger of parties such as the BNP who attempted to fuel such fears.

“Scotland is a welcoming country, but you don’t have to scratch the surface too deeply to find pockets of racism. It is particularly unfortunate that there are still some who wish to stoke up racial tensions, such as the BNP,” he said.

If Mr McConnell’s strategy is to be the success he craves, and that his leadership badly needs, it will require committed support from the business community. The signs so far have been positive, with Iain MacMillan, director of CBI Scotland, publicly supporting Mr McConnell’s plan. However, he too has warned that current attitudes could hamper efforts to encourage migrants to settle in Scotland—particularly the English.

“I would like to see more English people coming to Scotland so that we can use their skills,” he said recently. “It is very clear that countries with decreasing population and falling birth rate and an ageing population have a very serious problem, but I don’t think we are as welcoming of the English as we should be and I think it has got worse over the past 20 or 30 years,” he said.

Perhaps the best advertisement for the success of migration thus far is a scheme run by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce which aims to highlight the wealth of experience within the city’s refugee community.

The initial aim of the New Glaswegians Project is to fill more than 500 posts which remain vacant within the hospitality sector.

Lesley Sawers, the chamber’s new chief executive, insisted that the project was not condemning jobless Glaswegians to a life on benefits.

“This isn’t displacement, this is working in parallel. We do recognise that there are concerns, but we have to recognise that we have people who are here, who have the skills we need and who are willing to work,” she said.