[BRIEF NOTE] Back to the Auld Sod?

[rfmcdonald]

The most recent population projections issued by the General Register Office for Scotland expect Scotland's population to fall steadily, from 5.06 million in 2003 to 4.88 million by 2028, and thereafter more quickly to 4.5 million in 2043. Scotland's population, already growing slowly for most of the 20th century, has become a major political issue in newly-autonomous Scotland, as evidenced by The Scotsman's file of population-related articles.

Scotland's population futures could be changed if birth rates were boosted. This is a relatively expensive strategy, though, requiring not only significant monetary expenditures but a radical transformation of gender relations. Boosting levels of immigration to Scotland might seem more attractive. Witness last year's proposal to give Scotland control of immigration policy. Now, we have
Angus Macleod and David Listen's article in The Times, "Come home . . . for the sake of auld economy".

Jack McConnell, First Minister of the devolved Scottish Executive, will fly the Saltire in Australia, the United States, Canada and South Africa to tempt Scots home.

First stop for Mr McConnell will be a week-long visit to Canada and New York this month, where he will appeal to an estimated 15 million claiming to have Scottish ancestry in North America. He is especially targeting those deemed prosperous enough to use their fortunes to help to revive Scotland’s flagging economy.

[. . .] There are up to 90 million people of Scottish ancestry — based on those claiming at least one Scottish great-grandparent — living outside of the country.

Mr McConnell told The Times: “About 15 per cent of the Canadian population identify themselves as of Scots ancestry. They feel an affinity, which is largely historical. They love and believe in the history, the landscape, castles and old links.

“But I want to make them aware of modern Scotland. I do not want to rubbish the past because the past is the connection, but I want to tell them where Scotland is today in terms of financial services, universities and our cities as well as the rebirth of Scottish culture.

“We have begun to address that trend and that I think is to do with the quality of life we can offer in Scotland and we will be making plans to target some of the talented Scots in London.”

New Brunswick journalist Alec Bruce has responded with some admiration to this

All of which is to say that the Scots may be on to something (again). As a means to stem the flow of talent from their shores sooner, rather than later, they choose to appeal directly to those who might already feel a kinship, however remote, to their fair and bonnie land - at least, for now.

As it happens, I am, myself, a Scottish-Canadian. And while I have no plans to abandon the nation of my birth for the country of my ancestors, I must confess to feeling the slight, sublime tug of history.

The most immediate problem with this strategy is that people of Scottish descent elsewhere in the diaspora--such as it is--generally enjoy standards of living comparable to those of people in Scotland. What's the incentive for them to move? The exception, as always, is Atlantic Canada. It would be rather cool indeed if Scottish-Canadians, at least in perennially depressed Atlantic Canada, acted like Argentines of central European immigrant background and proceeded to the welcoming ancestral homeland en masse to reclaim their ancestral citizenship. I'm pretty sure that I'd qualify.

Then again, I'd have to wonder how many of those migrants would stay in Scotland. If I myself was somehow fast-tracked for United Kingdom citizenship by the Scottish government and had unrestricted access to the labour markets of the entire European Union, I might well be tempted to thank Holyrood for the pa[pers and head off for Malagá or Tallinn posthaste.