Diversity and Inclusion are topics that frankly, I have a real struggle getting my head around, primarily because I was brought up by a progressive Cornish rebel of a mother in such a way that I had no need to include either word in my vocabulary. I just learnt to accept that regardless of any differences everyone was of equal importance and value to society.
What also helped mould my thinking and general attitude was that I was fortunate to have spent a fair proportion of my career overseas, working with a range of nationalities, experiencing different cultures and of great interest to me personally, food!
Although I’m not sure it had anything to do with it, as it happens my mother also made proper Cornish pasties and the finest steak and kidney pudding the world has ever seen!
In Scotland, I’m delighted to say attitudes to migration are now changing quickly and moving in a very positive direction.
In fact, according to a recent poll for Migration Policy Scotland, 59% now think immigration has a positive impact on Scotland, 56% think immigration has a positive impact on our economy and 38% want immigration increased with only 28% wanting it reduced.
These attitudes along with those towards class and royalty are of course being driven predominately by Scotland’s youth which, as long as they keep it up bodes well for our future.
For the record, I also don’t do class and I certainly don’t do royalty.
‘Reinvigorate the inventiveness that this country was once famous for’
Now all this is important because Scotland’s future is going to be one where immigration inevitably plays a far larger role than it does now and the thing that’s going to really drive that is climate change.
António Guterres the United Nations Secretary-General said recently “Our planet has just endured the hottest summer on record” and that “climate breakdown has begun.”
It doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to realise that this will inevitably result in mass migration as people try to escape parts of the world that are rapidly becoming uninhabitable.
What this tells me is that countries like Scotland that have relatively low populations but lots of spare land will sooner rather than later have to step up to the plate and put the mechanisms in place ready to accommodate and make these migrants welcome.
Of course, many of those migrants won’t just be from relatively poor countries but from advanced ones as well.
If we look at what happened this year to temperatures in Spain, Italy, Greece and even France as well as the intense storms some of these countries have endured, I’m sure there are some people there wondering if it’s time to move because this situation isn’t going to get any better anytime soon.
© Supplied by Dick WinchesterSomeone – I forget who exactly – said recently on social media “Stop thinking about this year as the warmest for the last 100 years but the coolest one for the next 100”.
Whilst that’s a pretty scary thought and given the evidence of the last few years, more likely to be true than not, it should also be a wake-up call about how soon climate migration might begin in earnest.
The idea of a larger and more diverse population is something I actually find rather exciting primarily because it could bring a wider range of talents to our shores and actually help strengthen our economy.
It might also help reinvigorate the inventiveness that this country was once famous for and that we seem to have lost ironically, especially when it comes to technologies for dealing with climate change.
Of course, at the moment the UK Government is putting a huge amount of effort into trying to prevent immigrants from coming here.
It’s the classic pale, male and stale approach that one might expect of a government that lacks vision and empathy.
Learning from Seattle
In Scotland, we have hundreds of thousands of acres we can repopulate. We could in effect reverse the highland clearances and grow the populations of towns like Ullapool, Wick and Oban turning them into smaller versions of cities on the NW coast of the USA like Seattle.
My eldest son who lives in Seattle has just been here for a week and was explaining to me all the latest developments in their local economy.
It’s another world over there and I’d like to see some of the enterprise and enthusiasm that they have applied here.
Seattle is a very diverse community as indeed is the whole of the USA. It’s in no sense perfect but they make it work and I believe we can as well, and we may well have to very soon if climate change keeps wreaking havoc as it has this year.
Perhaps we should start planning now.
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