Former First Minister Humza Yousaf has said “Scotland is becoming more intolerant” as he spoke of an increasingly toxic debate around immigration and multiculturalism taking root.
Mr Yousaf, the first Asian and Muslim elected as Scotland’s political leader, pointed to politicians failing to engage efficiently with genuine immigration concerns.
His tenure as First Minister was short-lived, surviving in the post little over a year, but long enough for him to brand the UK Conservatives’s Rwanda deportation plan “morally repugnant”.
Speaking in the documentary, Mr Yousaf questioned the Scottish phrase, “we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns” that’s appeared on placards in counter protest groups outside migrant hotels in recent weeks.
The slogan reflects the sentiment that all are welcome in Scotland, all are equal and none are inherently superior to others.
The former first minister said the phrase provided “a very nice soundbite”, admitting to using it on several occasions himself, but said it was symptomatic of downplaying “genuine” immigration concerns.
“We use these soundbites to perhaps mask the fact that people have genuine concerns about immigration,” he said, but suggested they were “misplaced concerns.”
He continued: “I have to say, in recent months and over the past couple of years, it is a feeling that the toxicity of the debate around immigration and multiculturalism has managed to find its way up here.
“Scotland I’m afraid, of course, is becoming more intolerant – both in the public space and frankly I’ve seen some of that intolerance in the political space too.”
He aired his comments in a new BBC Radio 4 documentary, ‘Scotland Wants You’, sharing the airwaves with Reform’s Richard Tice and the latest data from Migration Policy Scotland.
Humza Yousaf said politicians had failed to engage efficiently with genuine immigration concerns
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Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice said attitudes are hardening in Scotland because the politicians have told the public immigration would make them better off, but the strain on household finances continues to worsen.
“Scottish people are concerned by some of the impact of illegal immigration and too much legal immigration,” he told the documentary.
He went on, “People are questioning what they’ve been told by politicians.
“They’re saying: I think you’ve got this wrong.
“If politicians tell the good voters that immigration is going to make everyone better off – then people get worse off – people start to ask, quite rightly, serious questions.”
A collaboration between market researcher the Diffley Partnership and Edinburgh’s David Hume Institute reported immigration entering into Scotland’s top five concerns for the first time in May this year.
Richard Tice said attitudes on immigration are hardening in Scotland
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They are not the only researchers noticing the change in attitudes towards immigration north of the border.
Migration Policy Scotland holds regular surveys on the issue, hearing from more than 2,300 people across Scotland in February last year.The think tank has overseen Scottish attitudes to immigration for the past three years.
Director Sarah Kyambi told the BBC, "Scotland’s attitudes to immigration are cooling”.
“That cooling is from a point when we first started the survey – a point when the largest cohort in our survey wanted to see an increase in immigration.”
Now Migration Policy Scotland is seeing levels of support for reduced immigration increasing.
Ms Kyambi said, “I think there is a narrative about where Scotland sits on immigration that I worry leads to a kind of complacency - the idea that there is an inherent greater positivity amongst the Scottish policy towards immigration is likely to be mistaken.”
The number of anti-immigration protests taking place outside Scottish hotels housing illegal migrants has spiked since the summer, with the Cladhan hotel in Falkirk being a focus for weekly gatherings since the sentencing of a hotel resident for the rape of a 15-year-old girl.
At the beginning of September, First Minster John Swinney called hotel protests “completely unacceptable” and “distasteful” but his comments have not deterred hundreds from attending protests every weekend.