Meeting of the Parliament 12 June 2025
I greatly welcome the Deputy First Minister’s tone, because, as we all know, far too often, migration debates are highly contentious and framed by economic, social and security concerns. Sadly, nowadays, they are often framed by misunderstandings, negative perceptions that are sometimes very far removed from reality and, worst of all in this age of Trump and Farage, by increasingly unhelpful and damaging rhetoric that can border on racism and which clearly helps absolutely no one at all.
My contribution will be based very much on the facts—I hope that it will be an honest and open appraisal of the current challenges—and on my long-standing interest in labour market economics. However, before I begin that analysis, I want to be very clear about three things. First, I agree that the current system of immigration controls is not working. Secondly, in particular, the very high level of illegal immigration is a major concern, as is the associated fiscal cost of accommodation and public service provision. Thirdly, I quite strongly oppose a Scottish system of immigration, because of the inherent complications—although I will come to another aspect of that in a moment.
However, first, I come to the hard facts. Scotland has a very significant demographic challenge: an ageing population, as the Deputy First Minister said, a declining birth rate and worryingly high rates of economic inactivity.