Immigration no ‘quick-fix’ for aging population, says Bowie

Immigration is no “quick-fix” for slower population growth, a senior Conservative has warned as he opposed an SNP bid to devolve immigration powers to Holyrood.

Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie described high immigration north of the border as a “pyramid scheme response” to an aging population, as working-age migrants become old themselves “and perpetuate the same crisis again and again”.

National Records of Scotland figures forecast that the country’s population aged 75 or older will grow by 341,300 between mid-2022 and mid-2047, but the number of children aged 15 or younger is expected to fall by 79,900.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart claimed that the Westminster Government had used “social engineering” to lower Scotland’s birth rate by keeping the two-child cap on benefits in place.

The cap means that families can claim benefits such as Universal Credit for up to two children, and there is usually no uplift for additional children.

MPs ran out of time to vote on the Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill, which Stephen Gethins proposed to remove “immigration, including asylum” from the list of reserved matters which lie under Westminster’s control.

Mr Bowie told the Commons: “Proposed immigration as a quick-fix for declining population I’m afraid is wrong-headed and indeed short-sighted. High immigration to solve low birth rates and an aging population is a pyramid scheme response.

“Working-age immigrants initially slow the growth of the age dependency ratio, however, will in turn age and perpetuate the same crisis again and again, and whilst nations across the developed world are faced with the myriad of issues an aging population presents, the Scottish National Party should be more focused on support for working families, improving the economic outlook and prosperity, rather than proposing unfettered immigration.”

The Conservative shadow minister said the SNP should strive for Scotland to become the “lowest tax” part of the UK “and see what that has when it comes to attracting people north of the border”.

Mr Bowie said he was “sure there is” an SNP elected politician who had proposed “unfettered immigration”, when Dave Doogan, the party’s MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens, challenged him to “identify” one.

Mr Wishart had earlier said: “The simple fact is that Scotland needs more working age people to refresh our population and if we do not get that we are going to be in serious, serious trouble.

“Now this is happening all around the world. But what this Government is doing with this Brexit is getting in the way and making the issue worse.

“And you know something else that they’re doing, they are, with their falling birth rate, they are actually trying to suppress our birth rate by the social engineering use of the benefits system to deny benefits to working class parties who are seeking to have large families.

“It is the very point at where we should be doing everything to encourage more children. They are actively trying to suppress it through social engineering using the benefits system.”

He added: “This Government is making our situation and condition ten times worse by the inept, clumsy, callous and heinous attempt to socially engineer the benefits system to suppress our birth rate, at the very time when we need more children. We need larger families.”

The MP for Perth and Kinross-shire praised former prime minister Sir Tony Blair’s government, which he said “opened up Eastern Europe through accession which helped our issues in Scotland”.

Mr Gethins, the SNP MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, described his private member’s Bill as “a way of offsetting some of the damage that’s been done by a hostile environment, by Brexit”.

He said he was “very open to this being amended”, if the Bill is able to progress.

Scottish Secretary Ian Murray told the House: “Migration has to come down. That’s the Prime Minister and this Government’s view, because it’s too high.

“And the reason it has to come down, and this goes right to the heart of some of the big issues in Scotland and the moment, this Scottish Government don’t want to talk about it and this SNP Government don’t want to talk about – nearly one in six young people in Scotland are neither in education, employment or training.

“We have shipyards in Scotland that build the very best ships in the world employing Filipino and South African welders, and those South African and Filipino welders look from the top of those ships into some of the poorest communities in Scotland and the United Kingdom where there’s a huge number of young people not in education, employment or training, and we need to do something about that.”

Mr Murray urged a focus on “workforce planning and skills”, and said a consequence of devolving asylum policy to legislators in Edinburgh could be to have “checks in both directions” with different rules either side of the Scottish border.

The debate ended without a vote and was adjourned until July 11.