More immigration is not the answer to problem of Scotland’s ageing population

Regarding your recent article, “Experts warn of Brexit’s impact on Scotland’s stalled birth rate”, I am perplexed by its combination of two entirely differing factors – namely immigration and birth rate. To assume that immigration is a sensible, academic solution to our ageing population, undermines our values of Scottish family life.

At the age of 36, I myself have been in a four-year relationship with my partner and do not feel that Scotland provides a secure environment for me to start a family. To have a child, we would need to go down to being a single income family, at least temporarily. Employment is much more precarious now with zero hours contracts and a culture of cold profit-motivated redundancy, compared with how it was a decade ago.

Although I am in the minority of fiscally responsible people with zero debt of any kind, and savings, I would estimate that if I lost employment, as a single income family, I would only be between 4-6 months from homelessness and destitution.

We are unable to get a foot on the housing ladder today and social housing that would be much more secure than the private rental sector is almost non-existent.

We can no longer trust the social security system in austerity Britain, with cutbacks and means testing outsourced to unscrupulous companies, as a security net to catch us, should we hit upon bad times.

Should we not be considering how we can create an environment in which young families can flourish, rather than replacing them with young people from abroad?

By all means, look at increasing or reducing immigration for economic or social reasons, if it is deemed appropriate – but not as a replacement for the traditional Scottish family unit.

I myself, am in the process of migrating to Australia, where we feel the societal security to start a family is more forthcoming.

I hope that when I come back to Scotland on holiday I shall see significant improvements in this area. Social security, along with then hs, is the wonderful way Scotland( and the wider UK) took the horrifically negative impact of World War Two and created something positive.

I hope it can be restored at some point to its former glory, to productively deal with our ageing population problem, but also sentimentally, in the memory of those who defeated fascism. Social security is the tide that raises all boats but unfortunately for millennials, the tide is well and truly out at this point in time.

IAN PATERSON Grantley Gardens, Glasgow