Does Scotland really have too few migrants? |
Mairi McAllan, the SNP government’s Housing Minister, Nicola Sturgeon protege, and leader in waiting (according to the gossip), has been lambasted for claiming that Scotland has ‘too few migrants’. McAllan said on the BBC’s The Sunday Show this week that migration was ‘good and necessary for the economy’. In doing so, she sidestepped the self-evident truth that the 4,000 or so asylum seekers who live in Glasgow – the highest figure for any local authority in the UK – are not making a particularly great contribution to the economy. She also brushed over other problematic issues, such as integration, but that’s par for the course with the Scot Nats.
Deaths have outnumbered births in Scotland for over a decade
Deaths have outnumbered births in Scotland for over a decade
Yet, though it pains me to say it, McAllan has a point on this one. Whether Scots like it or not, immigration is probably necessary due to the country’s dismally low birth rate. There were just 45,000 live births in Scotland in 2024, which is the lowest figure since 1855 (!). The fertility rate is now 1.25, just........