Murdo Fraser MSP feels the SNP Government are not “doing enough” to attract legal migrants to Scotland to boost the country’s workforce.
The Scottish Conservative politician recently raised the issue with Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy, during a General Question session at Holyrood.
Commenting, Mr Fraser said: “Contrary to the claim often made in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament that Brexit is the reason for a fall in migrant workers, the latest figures show that net legal migration to the United Kingdom has doubled since Brexit. It is now at record levels and is predicted to grow still further.
“However, the problem is that too few of these legal migrants in the UK come to Scotland. We lag behind every part of England, with the exception of the North-east, when it comes to attracting legal migrants. The fact is that Scotland has fared very badly compared to other parts of the UK in these terms.
“We need legal migrants to come here and fill the vacancies that businesses have. I asked the Cabinet Secretary what more the SNP Government is going do to try to make Scotland a more attractive place for these migrant workers. I was very disappointed with his predictable negative response, when he trotted out the well-used line blaming Brexit for making migration more difficult, despite the clear evidence to the contrary.”
Mr Fraser continued: “In his response to my question, the Cabinet Secretary mentioned how the SNP have launched apprenticeship schemes and a Training, Attraction and Migration Service, but it is obvious the SNP Government are not focusing on this as one of their top priorities when they should be. We can all see they are not doing enough to attract legal migrants here to boost our workforce and that simply isn’t good enough.”
