Eastern promise must be fulfilled

Published on Wednesday 12 March 2008 08:12

BURNS put it best: "Facts are chiels that winnae ding." It's years now since I started pulling at the coat-tails of the responsible ministers in the last Scottish Government to try and interest them in a scheme to meet and greet Polish, and other Eastern European economic migrants to Scotland.

Because such information wasn't collected by the UK Government, I didn't have hard and fast figures and percentages of how many, how well qualified, what age and gender, how fluent in English they were . . . my argument was based on observation, anecdotal evidence and common sense. I didn't get very far with my suggestions.

But thanks to the Migrant Workers Survey, carried out in Fife and edited by Andrew Ballingall, I'll start using pester power again, this time on SNP ministers. The survey produced facts gleaned from 1000 Eastern Europeans, most of them Poles, who're living and working in Fife. For the record, most are aged between 25 and 34 and are single.

This is the basic information needed by any local council, health board and enterprise or development agency. Add to that information on the qualifications, skills and experience and standard of communication in English of individual incomers, and the fundamental facts have been collected to inform the necessary strategy and policies to make this modern migration a meaningful and rewarding experience for both the host community and the migrants.

A great deal of effort is already being geared towards meeting the specific needs of the migrants. For example, in Lothian the FE colleges have a selection of English language courses, and other informal and voluntary groups and organisations provide language coaching for migrants whose working hours don't allow for attendance at college.

So far so good, if the lack of facts on the numbers involved, and their places of residence are ignored. How can a local council plan its services if it doesn't know for what number of people it should plan, and the length of time different migrant workers will stay in Scotland? This last fact is vital information for the agencies involved in growing the Scottish economy, and the only figures our policy-makers have to work with are those in the Fife survey.

If we're all to maximise the opportunities afforded by this infusion of talent and energy into our community, it's presumably more beneficial to the Scottish economy if the 50 per cent of university graduates or undergraduates identified in the Fife survey are employed in jobs that match their qualifications and expertise, rather than jobs that underuse their ability. And from their point of view, the 40 per cent of this group in the Fife 1000 that said they'd like to stay in Scotland "indefinitely" would be more likely to do so, and would, no doubt, be joined by some of their compatriots.

At present more than seven out of ten don't use their skills, and conclude that Scots employers don't know the value of their Polish qualifications compared to Scotland's degrees, certificates etc.

So there's a job of work to be done on the two-way flow of information on how this group of economic migrants can give of their best, and get the most out of Scotland. This group, together with the thousands of young Scots who've left school and are neither in training nor employment, hold out the promise of a terrific future for Scotland – if their talents are properly recognised, supported and developed.

The last government thought it was doing enough by putting out some leaflets in Poland. Practically none of the Poles I've spoken to have ever heard of them. But emboldened by the figures from Fife, I'll see if John Swinney and Jim Mather, the Enterprise Minister, are willing to go one better and establish a system of information exchange and some sort of guide for evaluating professional or academic qualifications compared to our own, as a means to helping employers, and the new migrants.

Gorgeous George

Like most women, I've been mightily impressed by George Clooney ever since he smouldered on to our screens as the womanising paediatric surgeon in ER. We knew then that he was the type mother had warned against, but we didn't care. And he was such a good actor, too.

But where did he learn to act, and when? He popped up in a murder mystery on an old repeats channel on TV, looking like a hunk on a knitting pattern, all collar-length, Hugh Grant-like soft curls, and playing the part of a plank of wood to perfection. It was more shocking to see him au natural, before the image-makers cut his hair and allowed a five o'clock shadow, than the early pics of Madonna resurrected to "celebrate" her 50th birthday.

Playing tag

I'll support Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill in his proposal to extend the period, from four and a half to six months, a prisoner can be electronically tagged. I can't see what other chance he has of avoiding the situation of our jails having to turn away some very violent, dangerous criminals because we have no other secure prison places.

He's not to blame for the chronic, high percentage of prisoners . . . but unless he fixes what he himself has described as intolerable (the numbers of Scots in jail), he's on a hiding to nothing.