EAP 2
Pu Qin, Bright
Immigration in Scotland
I went to BBC.com and a story interested me, “Visa move to beat population drop”. In the story, the author said the first minister has agreed to make a loose immigration system to deal with population decline. First, the author mentioned that 8,000 new people including work permitted and international students moved to Scotland each year. However, the greatest threat of Scotland was the country’s population, which would be expected to drop below five million by 2009 (about 5,170,000 in 2003 from BBC.com). Second, the author said the government wanted to encourage foreign student to stay in Scotland after they graduated then helped Scotland grow the local economy. The current policy was that students could only stay until October of the year they graduate, but Scotland would change it to give them 2 more years’ visas to stay and work in there. Third, the author said that some people considered the current policies such as locking up the children of asylum seekers at the detention center would make a wrong first impression to people from abroad who might want to live in Scotland. And also some people deemed the immigration policy was a passive way to stimulate economic growth. They said the policy was cooked on purpose by some politicians for their own office careers.
First of all, Scotland is reallly facing a big threat from the population problem. According to UK government, Scotland does have a very low Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 1.48 in contrast with the UK as a whole of 1.65. Also the Scotland’s birth rate is lower than the UK’s ( Migration Into Scotland, 15 January 2004). This is naturally giving cause for some longer term concern. Its lower rates will lead to slightly faster population ageing than the UK. The reason for the low birth rate is the emigration of young people, who are early in their reproductive life, who move to England or elsewhere to obtain better jobs than Scotland’s.
Second, in the past, immigration did not make Scotland's population go up. The United Kingdom has had very high levels of net migration (about 875,000) in the last 10 years. But in the same period Scotland has had a loss of 41,000 by emigration. This shows that heavy immigration into the UK does not help Scotland to prevent a loss of population. Basically, international migrants are more likely to select London or the South East as their destination. On the other hand, Just a few people decide to move into Scotland because of there inactive economy.
Finally, the economy is the key of Scotland’s future. Based on the large emigration, it should be concluded that Scotland needs more jobs, not more workers actually. Scotland has a high rate of unemployment (6.8% in 2002). But in 2001 its claims for unemployment benefit were 4.2% of its workforce. This is why migrants will choose England, which has a better economy to stay and work in. Even the Scottish cannot get suitable jobs; can migrants? If Scotland liberalizes the immigration policy, how Scotland prevents from becoming the back door of England for new immigrants will be the hardest problem for policy makers.
In conclusion, Scotland should solve its own economic problem, make markets actively and increase domestic demand. It is should be a vibrant economy, which attracts migrants and reduces emigrants, rather than the other way. Also, Scotland should imitate other countries by taking family-friendly actions to raise the birth rate. Such actions have been successful in Scandinavia, still enjoys birth rates which are at or near natural replacement levels.
Pu Qin, Bright
Immigration in Scotland
I went to BBC.com and a story interested me, “Visa move to beat population drop”. In the story, the author said the first minister has agreed to make a loose immigration system to deal with population decline. First, the author mentioned that 8,000 new people including work permitted and international students moved to Scotland each year. However, the greatest threat of Scotland was the country’s population, which would be expected to drop below five million by 2009 (about 5,170,000 in 2003 from BBC.com). Second, the author said the government wanted to encourage foreign student to stay in Scotland after they graduated then helped Scotland grow the local economy. The current policy was that students could only stay until October of the year they graduate, but Scotland would change it to give them 2 more years’ visas to stay and work in there. Third, the author said that some people considered the current policies such as locking up the children of asylum seekers at the detention center would make a wrong first impression to people from abroad who might want to live in Scotland. And also some people deemed the immigration policy was a passive way to stimulate economic growth. They said the policy was cooked on purpose by some politicians for their own office careers.
First of all, Scotland is reallly facing a big threat from the population problem. According to UK government, Scotland does have a very low Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 1.48 in contrast with the UK as a whole of 1.65. Also the Scotland’s birth rate is lower than the UK’s ( Migration Into Scotland, 15 January 2004). This is naturally giving cause for some longer term concern. Its lower rates will lead to slightly faster population ageing than the UK. The reason for the low birth rate is the emigration of young people, who are early in their reproductive life, who move to England or elsewhere to obtain better jobs than Scotland’s.
Second, in the past, immigration did not make Scotland's population go up. The United Kingdom has had very high levels of net migration (about 875,000) in the last 10 years. But in the same period Scotland has had a loss of 41,000 by emigration. This shows that heavy immigration into the UK does not help Scotland to prevent a loss of population. Basically, international migrants are more likely to select London or the South East as their destination. On the other hand, Just a few people decide to move into Scotland because of there inactive economy.
Finally, the economy is the key of Scotland’s future. Based on the large emigration, it should be concluded that Scotland needs more jobs, not more workers actually. Scotland has a high rate of unemployment (6.8% in 2002). But in 2001 its claims for unemployment benefit were 4.2% of its workforce. This is why migrants will choose England, which has a better economy to stay and work in. Even the Scottish cannot get suitable jobs; can migrants? If Scotland liberalizes the immigration policy, how Scotland prevents from becoming the back door of England for new immigrants will be the hardest problem for policy makers.
In conclusion, Scotland should solve its own economic problem, make markets actively and increase domestic demand. It is should be a vibrant economy, which attracts migrants and reduces emigrants, rather than the other way. Also, Scotland should imitate other countries by taking family-friendly actions to raise the birth rate. Such actions have been successful in Scandinavia, still enjoys birth rates which are at or near natural replacement levels.
posted by bright at 8:14 AM
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