Scotland is a great place to live with a well-integrated society, but it is vital that we support communities across Scotland to be integrated, and not divided along ethnic, religious, or socio-economic lines.
Here in Scotland, responsibility for local government funding rests with the devolved Scottish Government. Indeed, neither the Controlling Migration Fund nor the original Migration Impact Fund applied directly to Scotland – instead, under the Barnett formula, the Scottish Government was given a proportional sum of money that went into its wider budget. I understand that the Scottish Government has decided not to create a comparable scheme in Scotland.
Moreover, under the SNP, the Scottish Government have cut funding for local authorities, denied them the ability to raise their own funding for several years, and centralised as much power as possible in Holyrood. This has left local authorities in Scotland less able to cope with any effects that migration might have on their communities.
I know that the UK Government takes the issue of community integration very seriously, and to this end has launched an Integrated Communities Strategy, which includes proposals for the immigration system that would apply to all parts of the United Kingdom. Moreover, the UK Government’s wider immigration policy is guided by principles of fairness, sustainability, and the UK’s economic needs.