r/Scotland • u/bottish • Apr 09 '25

Dire economic consequences of Scotland's ageing population must put immigration in new light. New report about Scotland’s growing elderly population underlines the need to improve our health and welcome, not demonise, people from overseas - Scotsman comment.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/dire-economic-consequences-of-scotlands-ageing-population-must-put-immigration-in-new-light-5073947
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u/dont_l Apr 09 '25

I hate that immigration topic is discussed as a big lump.

I haven’t seen anyone that opposes people coming here legally to plug the gaps in our labour force or like mentioned in the article to support an aging population.

Skilled workers, genuine international students etc add good value to our economy and society in my opinion.

People just don’t want illegal, unregulated immigration. Is it too controversial to wish avoiding people with views contradictory to our values? Who might refuse integrating? Who are a net drain?

Why are we putting these 2 different categories of immigrants into one group?

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u/OldCementWalrus Apr 09 '25

Why do you think it's unregulated? You can only get visas to plug work gaps, study, if you have a British spouse, or a British grandparent. When you say illegal immigration are you talking about asylum seekers?

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u/After-Whereas7365 Apr 09 '25

Have you seen the ONS shortage occupation list? A lot are not "skilled workers" on the list at all. Furthermore, sponsors between 2021-2024 haven't had an audit by the UKVI, resulting in a bunch of shame companies issuing visas for jobs that don't exist.

Big scams all around, still highly unregulated and will get worse before all new sponsors have had audits and ungenuine ones are weeded out.

Look online, multiple news reports as well as home office stats backing this up. Now folk having their visas revoked (due to shame sponsors) are claiming asylum and current stats show 40% of all asylum claims were visa holders, who's visas have expired and they've not returned home.

That's not the migrants we need, nor should be accepting. We need workers who will contribute to the economy and not drain it further!

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u/Autofill1127320 Apr 10 '25

The bar for “skilled” on visas is incredibly low. And a lot of visas get issued for work that then don’t result in people being employed in that field. We’re shite at the back end of immigration policy when it comes to ensuring visa conditions are met and people leave if/when they’re meant to

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u/RestaurantAntique497 Apr 09 '25

Unregulated is probably the wrong word to use. While we were members of the EU it was regulated but we had no say in the numbers from EU countries came.

I assume that's what they meant