Chamber and committees

Will the member give way?

The minister will be aware that the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee met on Tuesday. There was no time for the committee to consider a written report on the issue, and there was no opportunity for us to scrutinise the LCM. The Parliament has been asked to approve an LCM that many members have been unable to find the full details of and to ask the appropriate questions about. I appreciate that there has been a consultation with those outside the Parliament, but members in the Parliament seem to have been left behind. Why is there such urgency to get the LCM through today, and why could it not wait until September? Could he also confirm that the approach that has been taken is not good practice and should not be seen as such?

Martin Whitfield will be aware that the legislation that we pass does not last just for the duration of the current Government; it lasts for years to come. I am happy to accept what the minister says, but we do not know how the legislation could be used by future Governments, which might have a very different view. Is Martin Whitfield not concerned that, if there is a Scottish Government policy change, the legislation could be used in a way that would have a damaging effect on young people in Scotland?

Is the member arguing that everybody in the care sector should be on £32,000 a year? That is the pay threshold that his party at Westminster is setting for people coming in. We must either increase wages dramatically or we must reduce that figure. We cannot do both.

I am happy to give way, but I think that Christine Grahame was first—my apologies.

I am grateful to Michael Marra for taking my intervention. One of my concerns with the white paper from his colleagues in London is that it does not recognise that in some sectors, such as the caring sector, there is a massive shortage because of the income that individuals in that sector earn. Is there a danger that people who give valuable care to disabled and older people in Scotland will be cut off from coming?

I absolutely agree with Christine Grahame on that point. However, it is a fundamental role of the state to ensure that we have secure borders, so I support efforts to curb the number of people who illegally enter the United Kingdom.

I think that it was one of the factors, but I am not sure that it was the only reason, which is why we need to look at the issue as a whole. Therefore, I support the curbs on the number of people who illegally enter the United Kingdom.

That said, I also agree with a number of speakers in the debate that legal migration can be a real positive force in the United Kingdom. Bringing in skilled workers from other countries helps us to build world-leading industries, which should be an ambition of all political parties in Scotland. We want to attract talented people to Scotland. We want to see people coming to contribute to our economy, whether they are doctors, engineers or scientists. They all contribute to improving standards across the UK.

At the same time, we should recognise that other sectors benefit from an increase in their workforce. As I said previously, and as Daniel Johnson debated, jobs such as care work do not require high levels of education, and the sector is not currently attracting enough people into that workforce in Scotland. Even if we could bring everybody who is currently economically inactive into employment, that would not solve our long-term problem.

More and more care organisations are struggling to provide suitable packages for disabled and older people because of staffing pressure, and the truth is that people in this country are not going into the care sector in the numbers that we need them to. I accept that we need to look at conditions and pay, but, if we are serious about ensuring that disabled and older people’s rights are respected and that those people are treated with dignity, we need to fill those jobs. The easiest and best way of doing that is to make allowances in the immigration system for carers to take up the jobs. I can personally vouch for the fact that carers from other countries can be excellent, as is demonstrated by the number of wonderful people who help me each morning.

To be clear, I am not saying that we should totally outsource those jobs away from British and Scottish people. I am in favour of any efforts that either Government can make to encourage more British young people into the caring profession, which is an incredibly rewarding career path indeed. However, unfortunately, any such scheme would take a number of years to bear fruit, and we have a short-term problem.

In the meantime, we have to play the ball that is on the pitch, not the ball that we wish was there. We have a need, and the rest of the world can help us with it. To bring in people who are ready and willing to contribute to our society and meet the needs, who can also help with the taxation system—is that not how any successful immigration system should function? However, at the moment, we are turning away people who could fill those jobs. It seems to me that a good way for the Scottish Government to promote more migration into Scotland would be to work to make it a more attractive place for people to move to, instead of pursuing anti-growth and anti-wealth policies.

The Scottish Government does not and should not have the powers to act on immigration law. What it does have is the power to make Scotland as attractive a place to live and work in as possible within the United Kingdom. It has the levers; it is time that it started to pull them.

I want to begin by recognising, as many members have today, that immigration is a sensitive topic and that we owe it to our constituents to refrain from reckless generalisations. There has actually been a fair amount of consensus across the whole chamber. I suggest that, instead of making such generalisations, we ground our arguments in facts, as Liz Smith and others have done, reflecting the world as it is, not as we idealise it to be or fear that it might be.

In that spirit, I associate myself with the remarks of my colleagues and others when they acknowledged that illegal immigration should not be accepted or—what is worse—encouraged. I fundamentally disagree with Maggie Chapman. Illegal immigration has harmful effects in all the areas that are dealt with by Government portfolios, but especially in social security, which is already at breaking point in Scotland. It is clear that the matter needs to be addressed swiftly and effectively.

We must also admit that the previous Government did not get it all right.