Labour is positive about immigration while recognising the system must change
I'm married to a French national, my children are bilingual and my extended family live and work all over the world so I know that immigration enriches our communities socially, culturally and economically.
But it is possible to be positive about the contribution immigration plays to our communities while, at the same time, wanting a system that is controlled, ordered and fair.
The reality is net migration has quadrupled in just four years, reaching unprecedented levels, this happened while employer investment in training the UK workforce fell.
This, alongside years of austerity, strained public services, and a lack of houses and decent jobs for our young people bred a lack of trust in the system.
That lack of trust doesn't come from one single issue, and politicians who claim otherwise are simply wrong about the moment we are in.
Immigration is not the source of all our problems but it's not the solution to all of them either. We need a balanced approach to maximising the benefits and minimising the costs.
This Labour UK Government ended austerity with more money for public services like our NHS in Scotland than ever before and the biggest upgrade in workers rights for a generation which should directly benefit social care staff.
Now we are setting out targeted reforms which will help attract highly skilled individuals to drive innovation in Scotland's key sectors such as renewable energy, life sciences, and technology.
We are also increasing the skills threshold for work visas to degree level – making sure skilled work truly means skilled work and ending the reliance on lower skilled overseas labour that grew under the last government.
We are also going to support refugees who have been officially granted protection status in the UK to apply for employment through existing worker routes where they have the skills to do so.
We want to see the Scottish Government step up and do more to support skills for working class young people in Scotland. Instead, college places are at their lowest level in a decade and facing further cuts from the SNP this year. Meanwhile more than 1,300 kids – the equivalent of a full high school – left school last year with no qualifications to their name at all.
Failing public services, a lack of investment, fewer opportunities for young people, increased net migration. All these issues combine to break down trust in the system.
All across the country people are scunnered. A government of service to working people addresses those concerns, a government of service to its party won't.
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