Meeting of the Parliament 09 January 2025
Craig Hoy will recognise that a number of initiatives are being taken and that certain schemes will be demand led. However, the Government has a demonstrable commitment to address some of those challenges using the powers of devolution. I invite members to guard against any single-action bias and the presumption that one intervention is the answer. We need a multifaceted approach to ensure that all parts of Scotland are capable of attracting and sustaining populations. That is the spirit in which the debate has been brought to the Parliament.
There is clear evidence of the need for a tailored migration route for Scotland. The current immigration system does not meet the needs of communities across Scotland, particularly our rural communities. That is not only the Scottish Government’s assessment but that of the UK Government’s Migration Advisory Committee, which accepted that
“the current migration system is not very effective in dealing with the particular problems remote communities experience.”
The solution that the Migration Advisory Committee proposed, which the then Home Secretary accepted, was a pilot scheme to facilitate migration to rural areas. We have developed detailed deliverable proposals for tailored migration routes: a Scottish visa and a rural visa pilot. The Migration Advisory Committee reviewed our proposal for a rural visa pilot and described it as
“sensible and clear in both scale and deliverability”,
calling on the UK Government to
“consider what action would be required to take a pilot from proposal stage to implementation.”
There is no reason not to move ahead with that pilot.
Migration to Scotland supports economic growth and the delivery of public services. It helps to address the serious issue of long-term demographic change and enhances and sustains our communities. All—I emphasise “all”—our future population growth is projected to come from migration, so any reduction in migration, whether from the rest of the UK or internationally, will impact on the size of our working-age population. A UK immigration system that does not meet the needs of Scotland is not fit for purpose. Through the establishment of Scotland’s migration service, this Government is supporting employers to navigate the immigration system, and we will continue to argue for changes to the immigration system to meet Scotland’s needs.
The Scottish Parliament has previously supported motions that argued for an immigration system that focuses on the needs of Scotland’s economy, public services and communities. This is yet another opportunity for this Parliament to set out our priorities and our asks of the UK Government.
I move,
That the Parliament recognises the social, economic and cultural contribution made to Scotland by those who have chosen to live here; notes the establishment of Scotland’s Migration Service at a cost of up to £1.5 million in the draft Budget 2025-26 to help employers, investors and individuals navigate the UK immigration system; further notes that the Parliament has previously endorsed a motion calling for the development of a differentiated, more flexible migration policy tailored to meet Scotland’s specific needs, and calls on the UK Government to accept the Rural Visa Pilot proposal and to work directly and constructively with the Scottish Government to ensure that the needs of Scotland’s employers, communities and public services are fully reflected within the immigration system.
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