Scotland’s ethnic minorities, those who identify as any ethnic group other than “white Scottish”, has grown significantly in size over the past 10 years, representing 850,000 people or 16% of Scotland’s residents. This shouldn’t be too surprising: for centuries, Scots travelled the world, settling in America and Canada, Australia, India, China, and across Europe. There are 50 million people around the globe today who claim Scottish ancestry, so just as Scots left their home to travel to new lands, so too are others choosing to settle in Scotland.

As the son of immigrants myself, I’ve made it a point to educate others on the value of greater ethnic diversity, from my efforts to create an inclusive culture at PG Paper to my diversity work. Wherever I am, the goal remains the same: to demonstrate the benefits of a more diverse Scotland and how we can help new immigrants become integrated into Scotland and its culture.

What Are The Benefits of Diversity in Scotland?

There are several benefits that come with bringing more diversity and multiculturalism to Scotland. For one, it promotes tolerance and understanding between different cultures, which along with being positive on a social level, it’s also a positive for businesses as it encourages and promotes cultural integration and the sharing of one’s ideas and perspectives. This sharing and openness can lead to new innovations for businesses together with open-mindedness, collaboration and teamwork.

A diverse workforce can provide companies, especially those operating internationally, with a distinct competitive advantage. Employees with different cultural backgrounds make it easier to communicate globally and increase a company’s understanding of their customers’ cultures and environments.

In an increasingly competitive business environment, recruiting globally increases your talent pool.  In PG I have found that having a culturally diverse team has been a draw in both attracting and retaining the best talent to our company, with research showing culturally diverse organisations enjoy greater employee satisfaction.  It also helps us better understand and focus on our customers, their cultures and needs. Having diverse cultures and backgrounds in our team leads to greater creativity.

On top of this, promoting cultural diversity helps to enrich our communities through shared experiences with different people, promoting empathy and a willingness to learn, good traits to have for a country with a reputation for innovation.

It’s important we both recognise and work towards breaking down the barriers to employment such as language skills, lack of experience or unrecognised professional qualifications. When my own wife, Poonam Gupta OBE first arrived in Scotland, she found that despite having an MBA in International Business no organisation would employ her because she had no experience. Instead, Poonam started PG Paper from her kitchen table, building it into the multi-award winning business it is today.

Three Forms of Integration

When people talk about immigrants becoming integrated into their new homes, they’re usually talking about things like speaking the same language, but there are many different forms of integration to consider. If we want to create a more diverse Scotland, we need to make it easier for people to achieve these forms of integration, as it will help them feel more a part of the wider culture and better position them to contribute to it.

Of the many ways to become more integrated into a culture, three of the most important are economic, political, and social integration.

• Economic Integration involves access to, and accommodation within, the labour market. Obviously, people aren’t going to be able to contribute if they aren’t given the opportunity to earn a wage and participate in a field. To address this, government’s and organisations need to focus on the provision of specialist training programmes to help people enter the labour market, and review the mutual recognition of qualifications. Organisations should work to encourage and celebrate diversity. At PG Paper, we have an incredibly diverse organisation with staff from across the world and we celebrate each other’s festivals and work to learn more about each other’s cultures and ways of working.

• Political Integration involves exercising political power through voting, standing in elections, and the right to political organisation. To support this, policies should extend migrant voting rights, encourage representation, and provide funding for migrant groups. This form of integration has been central to my own efforts, working to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to have a voice and participate in politics. There is no better time for Scotland to strengthen its global connections, working alongside both the Scottish and UK Governments to support trade, collaboration, and a more prosperous economy.

• Social Integration involves access to social rights, such as health, education and housing, and the development of a feeling of belonging. The type of policies needed here include extending access to public services and programmes to foster community relations. Arguably, a sense of belonging is the key to successful diversion and inclusion efforts. Too often, the discussion of immigrants emphasizes giving up some of one’s identity to be a part of a larger whole, but it is our individuality that brings the greatest value.

Of course, promoting diversity and multiculturalism anywhere comes with challenges, but so long as we approach the process in an authentic way, we can celebrate and learn from our differences and end up in a better place than we started. The most important thing we should remember is that diversity efforts aren’t just about profits and numbers: it’s about the humanity that lies beneath.