How anti-immigration sentiment is driving UK towards Brexit-like act of economic self-harm

According to figures from the National Records of Scotland, this country’s population would be in a record-breaking decline but for one factor – immigration. Instead, it hit 5,490,100 on June 30 last year, the highest ever level, after the largest rise since the 1940s.

Net international migration was 47,700 for the year to June 30, 2023, while net migration between elsewhere in the UK and Scotland was 13,900. This more than compensated for deaths outnumbering births by 19,100, the biggest gap on record.

Paying for state pensions

There are unquestionably practical problems associated with high net migration, with effects on demand for housing, pressure on public services and so on. However, there are also huge benefits.

In addition to the decreasing number of people born in Scotland, our population is also ageing. More than a fifth of Scots are 65 and over, compared to 16 per cent under the age of 16. The advantages of bringing in people of working age, as most migrants are, include that they help pay for the state pensions of elderly people, which might otherwise become an increasingly difficult task.

Immigration debate needs greater balance

Hostility towards immigration – inflamed by nationalistic populists – has been a theme of UK politics for years, and played a key role in Brexit, an act of economic self-harm that many now regret.

The danger is that anti-immigration sentiments run so high that the UK loses sight of the reasons why it can be beneficial. If employers cannot fill jobs, those vacancies will disappear. If universities are prevented from bringing in international students, they will lose a vital source of income that helps provide a world-class education for all.

The debate about immigration is in desperate need of some balance, or Britain will end up committing another act of self-harm even worse than the last one.