UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

Impact of Immigration to Scotland

Monday, 4 August 2008

The population of Scotland is at 25-year high thanks to a baby boom and increased migration to the country.

Figures published by the General Register Office for Scotland show the population rose by 27,300 to 5,144,200 between mid-2006 and mid-2007. This means Scotland's population has increased by 1.6 per cent since 2001, when the total was around the five-million mark.

The biggest factor in the turn-around has been the recent arrival of thousands of skilled workers from other parts of the UK and Eastern Europe. Incomers from former eastern bloc nations such as Poland have also had a positive effect on the birth rate, with one in three of the babies born in Scotland last year having foreign parents.

And experts now believe Scotland's population will stay above the magic five million mark until the 2070s. The statistics mark a remarkable turnaround from four years ago when the then First Minister, Jack McConnell claimed Scotland was sitting on a "demographic time bomb". He warned that the population was in real danger of slipping below five million by 2009 and branded it the biggest single threat facing the country.

Immigration played a major part in the increase, with 37,800 people, including asylum seekers, coming to Scotland from overseas and 21,000 leaving Scotland to go overseas – a net influx of 16,800, which is the highest ever and compares with an inflow of 12,700 in 2005-6. This rise is partly a result of the Fresh Talent Initiative, launched by the Scottish Government that welcomes people from around the world who want to live, work or learn in Scotland. The good news is that international graduates and employers have nothing to worry about because the qualifying criteria remains the same after the recent changes of the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa.

There were 1,835 more births in 2007 than in 2006. Added to that, 1,100 more babies were born than deaths in 2007, the first year this had happened since 1997. Duncan Macniven, the Registrar General for Scotland, said this increase was also mostly due to immigration.

"Mothers from eastern Europe accounted for a third of the increase in births between 2006 and 2007, although only one in 50 of all births in Scotland was to a mother from eastern Europe," he said.

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