Most Scots aren't keen on immigrants

Foreign-born residents like me make up only 7% of Scotland's population. A strong majority of Scots think 7% is more than enough. Ach, nae more sassenachs!

Sassenachs — better known as the English — are bad enough. But it's the other foreigners that are really drawing the ire of many Scots.

Last week, the BBC extensively covered Scotland's views on immigration. Shaping its coverage around a March 2015 poll it commissioned, the "Beeb" to some extent manufactured this "news." Nonetheless, it is eye-opening to those of us who hail from distant lands.

The BBC's poll found that 15% of Scots would prefer to halt all immigration. Another 49% want immigration reduced from current levels. Thus 64% of Scots support curbs and reductions on all folks from foreign lands. This from a nation which over centuries sent many millions of its own people out to emigrate elsewhere, a worldwide Scottish diaspora. Between 1915 and 1939 alone, roughly 2.3 million Scots departed as emigrants.

Some gentle Scottish ribbing of their Irish neighbors. St. Patrick, incidentally, was English and held for years as a slave in Ireland. After escaping, he later returned to Ireland as a missionary immigrant.

Currently, the largest numbers of immigrants to Scotland come from Poland. As of the 2011 census, the approximate total numbers of foreign-born residents living in Scotland included: 61,000 Poles; 54,000 Irish; 49,000 Pakistanis; 34,000 Chinese; 33,000 Indians; and 25,000 from African nations. Roughly 16,000 Americans lived in Scotland in 2011.

The percentage of non-whites living in Scotland has doubled in the last decade or so, from 2% of the population in 2001 to 4% of the population in 2011. Nonetheless, Scotland remains ethnically homogenous — 84% of the overall population remains white Scots. Another 8% or so are whites from other parts of the U.K., and 4% are non-British whites.

(Chart courtesy of the BBC.)

Furthermore, 58% of Scots believe employers should give preference to hiring British people over all other nationalities. Bear that in mind if you're looking for jobs here.

How does Scotland compare in its immigration profile? They're actually slightly more accepting of immigrants than other Britons. In a poll from last year, 70% of Great Britain believed that immigration should be reduced or halted entirely. While Scotland has 7% of its population foreign-born, similar to Northern Ireland (6%) and Wales (5%), in England the immigrants make up 13% of the population. Scotland has a net migration of 10,000 per year; England has a net migration of 300,000.

The U.S. population is 13% immigrant. For the European Union as a whole, immigrants make up roughly 15%. With only 7% foreign born, Scotland falls well below the median for immigration in Europe:

(Chart courtesy of the BBC.)

As a foreign-born national, I don't encounter much animus. If any. Truly, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything other than a few sports-related jibes. My whiteness blends in easily here, and an American accent isn't all that unusual in Glasgow amongst its several universities. Throw in our highly educated and middle class backgrounds, and we aren't exactly the folks who most likely would feel the brunt of discrimination.

So I was surprised by these poll results. I have found the Scots, in general, to be extremely welcoming and hospitable. Is my experience unlike that of other immigrants? Am I merely blind to animus I'm receiving? Are the Scots masking their dislike of me as an immigrant? Or do most just assume I am a tourist, and not an immigrant at all?

If you want to know more about Scotland's current views on immigration, the BBC has covered it extensively. Here are several articles worth a perusal:

BBC poll suggests 64% of Scots want immigration reduced

Immigration: Charting Scotland’s new arrivals

'Brits should get job priority', suggests BBC poll of Scots

How do we define immigration?

Q&A: Why does immigration matter?

Welcome to Scotland?

Incomers, income and outgoings

YouGov / BBC Survey Results

Countryfile photo competition winner is . . .

Last month, I wrote a post about the BBC's Countryfile photo competition. It's an annual affair, with tens of thousands of submissions for spots in the program's charity calendar.

Somehow, inexplicably, regrettably, unfathomably, I didn't win. I wasn't included among the final twelve. Quelle horreur!!!

This past Sunday, the show announced its two winners. One winning photograph was chosen by popular voting. That winner gets the cover of the calendar, as well as £1,000 to spend on photographic equipment. The second winner is the choice of the judges, who receives £500 to spend on photographic equipment. Although it didn't happen this year, the same photograph could win both the judges' choice and the popular vote.

The 2014 popular vote winner is David Smith, a bricklayer who describes himself as a photography "hobbyist." (As a beginning hobbyist, there's hope for me in the future.) Smith took his photo on a pig farm in Norfolk. Although the Countryfile show did not disclose the number of votes, it did say that Smith's photo was the clear winner in the popular voting.

"Piglets on Parade" was the winner of the popular vote.

The 2014 judges' choice is a photo by Susie Mulholland, from Somerset. I think that's her name. It was hard to understand the name as announced on the show, and so far I haven't been able to find any further information regarding the winners or other contestants. Her photo of cows reflected in water was my favorite of the twelve finalists, and I cast my vote for it.

The judges picked "Curious Cattle" as their favorite. Me, too.

FYI, the image quality of these online photos is low. The real photos in the calendar will be much better quality -- they look stunning on television. My assumption is that the image quality of the online photos has purposefully been kept poor so that no one can use the photos commercially.

Proceeds of the calendar sales go to charity, the BBC Children in Need. Last year they sold more than 300,000 calendars and raised £1,452,219, the highest amount ever. At current exchange rates, that's $2,336,548.

If you want to buy the 2015 calendar -- and I hope you will -- it costs £9.50. That includes delivery in the U.K; delivery outside the U.K. costs only £2.75 per calendar, which is darn cheap. At least £4.00 of every calendar sold will go to the charity. You can purchase the calendar at: https://www.hcscalendar.co.uk/

For the next few weeks, the Countryfile show with an interview of winner David Smith is available on the BBC's web site. The segment about the calendar starts at the 41st minute, if you want to skip ahead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lbtjl

I wuz robbed!

Okay, not really.

Let's try again:  I wuz screwed!

Well, not really. It was the judges' decision. Three of them. They had 32,000 entries, and somehow, somehow, SOMEHOW did not choose my photo. Nincompoops.

What do they know?!? Are they blind?!? They're not even %$!@&*# professional photographers!

{Ed.'s note: Neither are you, Brian.}

Harrumph.

Every year, the BBC show Countryfile has a photo competition. It seeks viewers' photos for a calendar, sales of which raise money for the BBC's Children in Need charity. They get tens of thousands of submissions every year, sometimes more than 50,000. Judges select their top twelve photos, and then the public votes on its favorite. The winner gets £1,000 for photography equipment. The judges' favorite gets £500.

Countryfile is a BBC workhorse. On the air since July 1988, it now broadcasts 52 weeks per year in an hour-long prime time Sunday slot on BBC1. The show focuses on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues. Each week the show travels to a different part of the British countryside, ranging all over the island. Weekly segments may focus on wildlife, farming, local crafts, county fairs, disease outbreaks, nature walks, or any of a variety of similar topics. For my American readers, the show reminds me a bit of CBS's Sunday Morning show.

This year's photo competition theme was "Animal Magic." Exactly what that meant wasn't specified, of course, giving wide latitude to both the competitors and the judges. The animals photographed had to be either wild or agricultural (not pets), and photographed in the U.K. Photographers had to be amateurs. Submissions were required to be physical photos, not electronic, and competitors could submit a maximum of three. A panel of past winners and finalists winnowed the field from 32,000 to 3,000. Then the final three judges -- a U.K. comedian (and birdwatcher); a veterinarian; and one Countryfile's longtime hosts -- chose their favorite twelve.

What do this year's finalist photos look like? Here's a sampling. Note that the contest photos posted online are of low image quality (presumably deliberate to prevent anyone capitalizing on the photos before the calendar is released), so these images don't do them justice.

"Ruffled Feathers"

"Harvest Mouse"

"Fox Love"

"Swan Sweethearts"

"Piglets on Parade"

"Curious Cattle"

Any of the above photos is a worthy winner. They're outstanding. Do you have a favorite? I think mine is "Curious Cattle," but my opinion shifts every time I look at them.

Among the other six photos, I think a couple are real clunkers. I'm not showing them, though you can easily find them online. However, I'm certainly not a real photographer. I barely qualify as an amateur. I'm best termed a "beginner." You can decide for yourself. What were the judges thinking? Congrats to all the finalists!

What photo did I submit? A puffin masterpiece, amiright? Taken on the island of Lunga, among the Treshnish Isles off the west coast of the Isle of Mull. Hard to believe the good people of the United Kingdom won't have the opportunity to gaze at this photo every day next July, or March, or October, or whenever.

My puffin masterpiece from Lunga in the Treshnish Isles. "Look ma, no legs!"

Voting for the competition ends this coming Sunday. The winner will be revealed in October. For those of you in the U.K., cast a vote now for your favorite: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0bv


UPDATE: To see the winners, take a look here: http://coloringwithoutborders.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/countryfile-photo-competition-winner-is.html

Done playing hooky

I've been playing hooky from this blog. Can you believe it?

Jack is just as shocked as you are.

Partly, that's because we've been busy with guests and travel. We had almost six weeks of guests staying with us in May and June. Throw in the time planning trips (choosing where to go; hotel/car/train/ferry boat reservations, itineraries, etc.), cleaning the house, and then decompressing after they leave, and pretty soon it feels like two months went by in a blur.

And I have had more computer problems. Not as bad as a few months ago, fortunately. But our iPhoto crashed again and was only partly restored by the Apple savants. Albums and other organization of materials were lost. I've been able to painstakingly recreate some of it, but others bits are gone forever. That put a serious crimp in my blogging. Grrrrrrr.

Moreover, I've been busy doing some other things. There's a little interview blurb about me in this BBC News article from last week. We've had beautiful sunny weather recently, and I'm taking advantage of it by exploring and hiking with Jackson. And there has been the normal life miscellany -- car inspection, wedding anniversary (our 15th), minor illnesses, World Cup gatherings (we had 4 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Brit, and 5 Italians at our house watching the mighty Tim Howard vs. Germany) -- keeping us occupied.

A pantsless interlude during our weekday morning exploration of Inchcailloch, an island in Loch Lomond.

Truthfully, though, it's been nice to have a break from blogging.

Have you, fine readers -- all five or six of you -- missed me? I'm sure it's nice to have a break from me, as well. {Ed.'s note: 'Twas good to hae quiet an nae blethering from ye.}

I'll be getting back in the blogging groove soon. Lots of posts planned. And some fun activities planned for the near future that I hope to share with you.

Where have you been??? Hiking on the Isle of Skye, among other places.