SOME remote and rural communities could disappear within a decade under plans to slash immigration, MSPs have heard.
Appearing before a Holyrood committee yesterday, members of the Scottish Government’s independent advisory group on migration said some fragile communities had been badly damaged through the loss of local people to other areas, leaving them heavily dependent on newcomers from other countries.
READ MORE: Sturgeon: Immigration White Paper ‘closes the door on our future’
Professor Rebecca Kay said tougher Westminster-imposed immigration controls, such as a proposed £30,000 post-Brexit earnings minimum, could damage local services to the extent that some smaller communities come to an end.
In a report in February, the group suggested the UK Government plans could cut workers in Scotland by up to 5% over the next two decades.
Yesterday Kenneth Gibson MSP asked Kay: “Does this mean that this could actually affect the long-term sustainability of some communities, that some communities might not still be here in 10 or 20 years?”
She replied: “That is exactly what it means. There are areas where not only the current contributor to local population growth but the only possible contributor to local population growth is in-migration of people of reproductive age.
“The local population is so damaged by out-migration, the ageing structure of the population is such that it’s not possible for the birth rate to exceed the death rate in those areas.”
Kay said public services could be damaged by tighter immigration controls which could lead to locally born people leaving “because the hospital closes or the school closes”.
Gibson recalled a meeting with Arran Development Trust which covered forecast drops in the island’s working-age population.
He said: “They believe the working-age population will shrink in Arran by 47% in the next six years alone because there so many people in their fifties who are retiring.
“We’re already having difficulty delivering, for example, care packages for older people on the island and sustaining a lot of everyday services, so it is a real concern for me.”
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