Issues with immigration

Sir, – I refer to the comments of Dr Paulina Trevena (“Scots in the dark over migrant benefits”, July 2).

If this academic would care to step out her ivory tower and see life as it truly is for the majority of Scots, she might understand that more and more ordinary people in Scotland and the rest of the UK are actually coming to see large-scale immigration in its true light.

She trots out the wellworn buzz words and phrases – “racism” and “xenopobia” – to silence anyone who raises concerns about immigration and says “Scotland needs migration to grow its population and be able to sustain its economy”, as if this were an absolute truth which no one in their right mind would ever question, let alone object to.

The 2011 Census showed that those identifying as “White British” in London were a minority for the first time ever. Is this what Dr Trevena wants for Glasgow and Edinburgh? If the SNP’s Growth Commission gets its wish and 400,000 immigrants are allowed into Scotland then a few years down the line that could well be the result.

Dr Trevena concedes that the established population of Scotland “does not necessarily support sustaining high levels of migration into Scotland”. And why should we? The problems associated with this policy are numerous and well-documented.

I have heard it said that whether you support mass immigration or not depends on whether you are someone who eats in expensive restaurants or has to work in one. It is a

good illustration.

For the privileged few, floods of cheap labour are a brilliant idea; for those working on eighthour contracts in lowpaid jobs it means only more competition for those jobs by people who may be happy to work for even lower wages.

Perhaps Dr Trevena thinks all these migrants are going to be highlyskilled professionals filling positions which native Scots cannot be trained to fill. Either way, she is deluded. Angela Rennie. Muirfield Crescent, Dundee.