by Roger Mullin

Never a day goes by, but there is an attack on immigration somewhere to be found in the UK media. It is almost always peddling myths, like immigrants are stealing jobs or immigrants are forcing down wages. And it is not merely right wing Brexiteers like Farage that peddle such myths. Recently a Facebook post by someone claiming to be of the radical left in Scotland used such arguments. Corbyn is not averse to peddling myths. Gordon Brown famously followed the myth makers when campaigning for “British jobs for British workers.” It is ill-informed, often xenophobic, and completely against the economic interests of Scotland. We should eschew such prejudices and seek a better Scotland.

Contribution of migrant workers

As a member of the Sustainable Growth Commission, I was so pleased to find ready support for my argument that we should become a more welcoming country and reduce barriers to immigration, indeed propose measures to actively encourage immigration.

We should become a more welcoming country and reduce barriers to immigration

The reality is we need to grow our working age population for all areas of our economy; for example by attracting people to work on the land, work in our universities, work in our NHS and work in all our industries. The following table, also cited by the Sustainable Growth Commission, displays the distribution of current immigrant workers, emphasizing their broad contribution to Scotland’s economy.