I lodged the motion below last week following the most recent release of the 2011 census breakdown.
That the Parliament welcomes the recently released findings from the 2011 Census, which show that Scotland is now more ethnically diverse than it has ever been; further welcomes that Scotland’s ethnic minority population doubled from 2% in 2001 to 4% in 2011; notes from the findings that people from ethnic minorities represented 12% of the population of Glasgow, 8% in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and 6% in Dundee in 2011; notes, in particular, the increased presence of the Polish community in Scotland, which now numbers 61,201 people, or 1.2% of the Scottish population; considers the growing multitude of religious and ethnic backgrounds present in Scotland to be a positive development; believes that immigration has been of great benefit to Scotland’s economy, society and understanding of the world, and looks forward to future releases of Scotland’s census data in the coming months.
Jean Urquhart 