Migrants welcome? How Reform is turning Scotland into an unfriendly country for people like my two friends
A legal migrant who once praised Scottish hospitality tells Adam Morris that ‘in this last year, people have been treating me very badly’
In the past few years, we’ve become friends with a South Asian couple who moved to Edinburgh for work. They were asked to come here by their employer, a global firm, and after some consideration agreed to move their lives across 5,000 miles.
On arrival, they were immediate net contributors, thanks to the taxation from their well-paid jobs. They have bought a home, coughed up for a high band of council tax, and happily spend their well-earned cash in local shops, cafes and restaurants.
Since coming here, they have immersed themselves in the capital, and are proud to showcase their life to friends and family back home. There’s a social contribution too; they’ve made good friends and love cooking their cuisine for grateful neighbours. Keen to integrate, their house was festooned with Christmas decorations over the festive period.
Edinburgh a fine place to live
Before long, they will likely have kids. Their commitment to Scotland is unwavering, and their contribution manifold. They found Scots welcoming and hospitable, and regard Edinburgh – despite the weather – as one of the finest places they could ever have wished to live.
But a couple of weeks ago, the husband made this remark: “In this last year, people have been treating me very badly.” I was stunned, and humiliated that someone could have this experience, especially when they had previously spoken so glowingly about the place.
Of course, we should keep things in perspective. He wasn’t claiming to have been racially abused, nor that he now feels unsafe. Having lived in far less stable environments, he is not given to hyperbole on such matters.
However, the temperature has changed. In shops, retail workers are grumpy, giving him short-shrift for even the simplest of requests. There’s a stroppiness in public places, say, if he is in someone’s way or holding up a queue in the Post Office.
And on the road, the faces through the other windscreens have become screwed up and impatient if there’s confusion at a junction. Clearly our friend’s personal experience does not constitute hard evidence of a more general change in attitude among Scots to people of visibly different cultures.
That’s because such evidence is impossible to collate, and even if it was it would not necessarily translate to something that could be recorded by police. Those who are doing this, perhaps unconsciously, are unlikely to be the type to turn their frustrations into the kind of physical act that would interest the justice system.
READ MORE: Why football clubs and business leaders are in agreement over the importance of immigration
Reform party’s role
So all we have to go on are the anecdotes of someone who is living through this. It’s obvious what’s going on.
The agenda pursued by Nigel Farage’s Reform party needs to take the brunt of the responsibility. Invariably, whenever you challenge a Reform member or supporter about this they throw their arms up in faux outrage, claiming there are no grounds for such a dastardly accusation.
I would stop short of branding the party racist. But they are, sure as heck, happy to take the support of those who are, while lighting a fire in people who were previously indifferent to immigration and international affairs.
READ MORE: 'Brain drain' warning: Why Labour's pandering to Reform on immigration is serious threat to economy
Ludicrous accusation against Sarwar
There is proof of this. During the party’s campaign for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election in June, it ran a social media advert with the ludicrous accusation that Labour leader Anas Sarwar wanted to “prioritise” the Pakistani community.
It was the attack of lunatics, and one for which their representatives in Scotland have still not been held properly to account. More recently, we had a similarly insane assault on the children of Glasgow, of whom around a reported third don’t have English as a first language.
Sarwar rightly roasted Reform’s new Scottish frontman Malcolm Offord on Question Time, pointing out bilingual kids are a boon for Scotland. Offord may be polished, but how many more times will he happily take the heat for his unhinged colleagues?
Reform would claim ordinary Scots are not put off by all this – and that the polls back them up.
Labour and Tories mirroring Reform’s language
An MSP I spoke to recently told me how he had encountered a group of blokes in Dundee who all said they were voting Reform to “stop the boats”. No offence to the City of Discovery, but I don’t see many dinghies floating up the Tay.
Given Reform’s popularity, it’s no surprise the Conservatives try to mirror some of their more controversial language. Even Labour – who you’d instinctively think would defend minority communities – are reacting.
Funnily enough, for all Reform’s rhetoric, it’s a Labour proposal which causes my South Asian friends the most anxiety. Sir Keir Starmer’s government wants to double from five to 10 years the amount of time a foreigner has to live here in order to get indefinite leave to remain.
It puzzles them that a so-called left-wing government would embark on this kind of abrasive and counter-productive policy. The answer is not because Labour think it’s right or fair.
It’s because, through brainless appeasement, they are trying to reduce the flow of support which has bled from Labour to Reform. I hope all this won’t force my friends out the country, but it’s enough to make them feel unsteady and insecure.
Hardworking incomers
It’s provided a lesson on how the conduct of our political leaders impacts upon the behaviour of everyday citizens. People who previously wouldn’t have dared treat someone differently by dint of their skin colour now think they have consent to do so. The dial is being deliberately moved.
According to their slogan, “Scotland needs Reform”. But what do they bring other than widespread and totally unjustifiable enmity towards hardworking incomers who make such a great contribution to the economy and society?
I know who I’d rather have around.
Adam Morris is a former head of media for the Scottish Conservatives
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