The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) Scotland today (21 June 2005) warned members of the Scottish Parliament’s European and External Relations Committee that a failure to effectively address the current barriers that prevent people from ethnic minority backgrounds from fully contributing to Scotland’s society and economy will be detrimental to 'fresh talent.'

The CRE was giving evidence to the Committee’s Fresh Talent Inquiry a day before it brought together senior representatives from businesses, local authorities, health boards, community organisations and policy-makers at a Fresh Talent Summit in order to explore the implications of increased immigration for Scotland.

The issues the Summit explored included

- whether Scottish businesses are ready and able to attract and retain migrant worker

- the opportunities and challenges that increased migration presents for public service

and the impact of increased migration on Scottish society.

Speaking before giving evidence to the European and External Relations Committee Ali Jarvis, Interim Director, CRE Scotland said " increased immigration can enhance our economy and enrich our society. Given our declining population Scotland needs more people with a wide variety of skills – not just university graduates, but also builders, bus drivers and people working in the food processing industry. We therefore absolutely support the principle of encouraging more people to live and work in Scotland. However whether we can address Scotland’s population decline by attracting new immigrants doesn’t simply depend on getting more people into the country, it also depends on what we do to ensure they want to stay.

We all like to think of Scotland as an attractive and welcoming country, but we need to face up to reality. A person in Scotland today from an ethnic minority background of the same age, with the same skills and qualifications and living in the same area as a white person is more likely to be unemployed, be in a more junior position and earn less than their white equivalent. Scotland is beset by a chronic ethnic penalty. This ethnic penalty damages our economy by preventing people from an ethnic minority background from fully realising their potential. Unless we tackle this head-on, new migrants will face the same fate; and Scotland will continue to be held back.

CRE Scotland firmly believes that these scenarios can be avoided and that increased immigration can bring enormous benefits to everyone in Scotland. We are absolutely clear that Fresh Talent shouldn’t be one single policy initiative, but an integrated and sustained approach to maximising the economic contribution of all Scotland’s people. We are calling on the Scottish Executive to introduce an over-arching framework that connects the drive to encourage more people to live and work in Scotland to measures to eradicate racial inequality and encourage the integration of new migrants. "

Wednesday’s Summit will be the first step towards developing a broader policy response to these issues.

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