Written evidence submitted by Ariel Killick

SCOTTISH POPULATION & DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGES &

THE DIASPORA

ONE OF SCOTLAND’S GREATEST NATURAL RESOURCES

OCTOBER 2016

2

Contents

1. Author Information: Page 4

o Co-Founder Australian Scots Gaelic Summer School 1997 o Facilitating Employment of 39 Artists & Arts Production Staff across 20 Projects since 2013 o Supporting over 80 Scottish & UK businesses o Delivering 750 Workshops & Performances for 175 Schools, Communities, Festivals & Events, engaging more than 9,400 children, young people and adults o Clearances Descendant

2. Scotland’s special relationship with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America 5

3. Analogy: The Clearances and Meditteranean Crossing Tragedies Today 5

4. Diaspora Journeys to Scottish Residency – Identity & Adolescence in Multicultural Supercities, British Genocidal Legacies & Impacts of Australian & Scottish Independence Campaigns 6

5. Non-EU Clearances Descendant Contribution to Scottish Employment, Economy, Education & Culture since 2013 7

6. A Close Up View of Communities in Crisis & an Island Welcome - “It’s like an old people’s home here” 9

7. Population Growth 1921 - 2015 in Australia & Scotland - Australia - 5 million to 24 million vs. Scotland - 5 million to… 5 million 10

8. Descendants of Pioneers: Non-EU Clearances Descendants, ‘Can Do’ Attitudes & Repopulating Scotland’s Remote Highland & Island Areas 11

9. Homecoming Year – An Alternative View 13

10. Sqaundering one of Scotland’s Greatest Natural Resources - Disinheriting the Diaspora 14

11. The Zielsdorfs & Brains – International Negative Publicity for Would-Be Non-EU Scottish Diaspora Immigrants 15

12. Shattering the Positive Legacy of Homecoming Initiatives 15

13. 3rd Class Citizen Status for Non EU Clearances Descendants – A Double Injustice 16

14. 1% of 12 Million-strong Diaspora: Reversing Highlands Population in a Generation & Resolving it in Three 17

15. International Precedents for Ancestral Right of Return 18

o Spain & Portugal 2013 & 2014 – ‘Making Amends for a Dark Chapter of History’ - Citizenship for Inquisition Refugee Descendants

3

o Russia – The 2006 Compatriots Resettlement Program - A Step Further Down the Homecoming Path

o Poland & Ireland

16. Post-Brexit Possibilities 21

17. Pre-existing Campaign Groups for Free Movement Between UK-AUS-NZ & CAN 21

18. EU Investment Hubs, Joined Up Thinking & Homecoming 22

19. Land Reform, Community Sponsorship & Scottish Diaspora Return Immigration Development 24

20. Digital Clearances: The Digital Stone Age & Internet Access Now a UN Basic Human Right 26

21. Clearances by Another Name? Wealthy Retirees, Affordable Housing, Sustainable Communities & Local-led Development 28

22. Closing Summary - Turbulent Times Redolent with Opportunity 30

23. Acknowledgements: Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, Alex Salmond, MP & The National 32

24. Appendix: Teacher & Participant Evaluation of Ariel Killick’s Gaelic Work 33

4

1. Author Information

My name is Ariel Killick and I am an Australian-born, now Scottish-based, professional Gaelic-speaking arts practitioner and performer. I specialise in bilingual Gaelic outreach work through both teaching and performance across numerous artforms, including Circus Skills, Graffiti Art, Wicker Sculpture, and Community Participative Street Theatre & Spectacle, also drawing from traditional Gaelic folklore as a professional Storyteller.

From my base in Glasgow, I work primarily in Gaelic & bilingually right across Scotland, and also in Irish Gaelic in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Since March 2013 and by December 2016, my work will have facilitated paid employment for no less than 39 Artists and Production Support Staff, largely Scottish or Scottish-based, working on 20 separate projects, festivals and events, with an approximate aggregate budget total of £68,406. In addition to other solo festival and event work, as well as extensive touring educational work right across Scotland (over 750 Workshops & Performances for some 175 Schools, Communities, Festivals & Events Directly engaging with more than 9,400 children, young people and adults), my work has also supported at least 48 individual Scottish or Scottish- based businesses, 29 Accomodation providers, largely in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, totalling well over 80 businesses in the UK as a whole.

Almost all of these projects featured Gaelic and bilingual work as a central element and further detail is given in subsequent sections.

Co-Founder Australian Scots Gaelic Summer School 1997

In 1997, I spearheaded the establishment of the first Australian Scots Gaelic Summer and Autumn Weekend School, with first generation Scottish Australian, Alasdair Taylor, who has been living in Scotland & working with Gaelic for many years now. I am proud to say the Australian Scots Gaelic Summer School has continued since and will be entering its 20th year in 2017, run by Comunn Gàidhlig Astràlia (Scots Gaelic Society of Australia)1.

Alasdair and I are not only both graduates of the Scots Gaelic course as part of the Bachelor of Arts, Celtic Studies programme run by Sydney University2, but have also facilitated paid employment opportunities, many focussed on Gaelic, for well over 40 individuals in Scotland. As a side issue, this should make a considerable business case for Scottish Government financial support for a teacher of Scottish Gaelic at Sydney University on an ongoing basis, as well as Commun Gàidhlig Astràilia and the Australian Scots Gaelic Summer School.

Further information on the Commun Gàidhlig Astràilia Fundraising Appeal to this end is available here.

Clearances Descendant

Via my paternal grandmother Jessie Killick (nee McKechnie), I am also a direct descendant of William McKechnie, who along with his entire village of Shiaba, Ross of Mull, were evicted from their homes by the Marquis of Lorne, the Duke of Argyll's son, in 1847. The history of this village is exceptionally well documented, not just by the nearby Ross of Mull Historical Centre, in the tiny village of Bunessan, and in commentary in The Scotsman newspaper3, but the ruins of Shiaba have been described by no less than Sir

1 www.ozgaelic.org 2 http://sydney.edu.au/courses/bachelor-of-arts/major-celtic-studies 3 http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/shiaba-the-story-of-a-cleared-village-1-465482 5

Professor Tom Devine as “a fantastic laboratory for looking at the clearances (and) … the most significant site in the western Highlands.”4

Indeed the existence of Ross of Mull Historical Centre itself, in what is now a very sparsely populated rural area, is an indication of the considerable interest of Mull Descendants in their history. Although my Scottish ancestors left Scotland in the 1850's, the McKechnie name was carried all the way through to my Grandmother, and if it weren't for patriarchal norms, my last name would be McKechnie as well – and thus the echoes of the Clearances ring loud and clear in an unbroken line via contemporary names and memories many thousands of the Diaspora worldwide would carry today.

2. Scotland’s special relationship with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America

Scotland’s sociocultural history is reflected in its special relationship with people across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America today, where so many of Scotland's citizens landed after being forced from their Highland & Island homes, or as economic migrants. That this special relationship remains strong is evidenced by the huge number of Highland Games and Gatherings every year across all these countries, as well as the many towns in these countries bearing Scottish names, as what were effectively Clearances refugees, forced, displaced and or economic migrants sought to forever cement remembrance of their Scottish origins in their new surroundings. Descendants of families have not been in Scotland for generations can still feel a sometimes surprising sense of coming home, cultivated by spiritual ties, cultural affection and affinities borne of family histories carefully preserved over many generations.

3. Analogy: The Clearances and Meditteranean Crossing Tragedies Today

My Scottish ancestors, who eventually arrived in Australia in 1854, were very fortunate to have survived the journey at all. In just six years between 1847 and 1853 alone, at least 49 Scottish emigrant vessels were lost at sea5 – a situation directly analogous to the tragedies unfolding on a regular basis in the Meditteranean today, albeit with the journeys of Scottish Clearances Refugees and emigrants usually being consideraby longer and arguably thus far more dangerous.

The grievous injustices inflicted across so many Scottish Highland and Island communities is amply documented, with thousands of families, villages and crofters, losing their livelihoods, their homes and their lives during this shameful period of history, forced from land they had held for generations as their way of life was exterminated to further the financial ambitions of aristocratic landowners who valued sheep more than people. If they were lucky, those families were dragged screaming from their homes, evicted and left to face destitution. If they were unlucky, their homes were simply set alight as they sat within them, actions that would arguably qualify as crimes against humanity in modern times. The clearances forced the migration of highlanders to the sea coast, the Scottish lowlands, and further afield to the ‘new worlds’ of North America and Australasia. Today more descendants of highlanders are found in those diaspora nations than in Scotland itself6. In the USA, Canada and Australia alone, there are more than 12 million people claiming Scottish descent7,8,9.

The clearances and its effects should not be seen as irrelevant distant history with no bearing on the present,and as recently stated at the Westminster Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session, 4th July, on

4 http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/shiaba-the-story-of-a-cleared-village-1-465482 5 “Vale of Tears: A View of Highland History to 1886” - Sorley MacLean. From As an Fhearann – from the Land – Clearance, Conflict & Crofting, A Century of Images of the Scottish Highlands – An Lanntair, Stornoway, 1986. 6 http://paulmonaghan.scot/maiden-speech/ 7 http://www.factfinder.census.gov 8 http://www12.statcan.ca/ - 2006 census; ethnic origins data 9 http://www.abs.gov.au – 2011 census; “Cultural Diversity in Australia 6

the Population Challenges of the Highlands and Islands at Scotland’s Gaelic University, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig10, by former Chairman of HIE (Highlands & Islands Enterprise) Professor Jim Hunter, it is important to consider that “the Clearances & famine of the 1840’s were only two human lifetimes ago”.

4. Diaspora Journeys to Scottish Residency – Identity & Adolescence in Multicultural Supercities, British Genocidal Legacies & Impacts of Australian & Scottish Independence Campaigns

I will give a brief overview of how I came to settle in Scotland, as an example of the paths by which Clearances Descendants in Non-EU countries, specifically Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, can come to want to embark on such a journey.

Growing up in the intensely multicultural city of Sydney, Australia, I was constantly surrounded both at school and in my local suburban centres, by immigrants of many backgrounds, most of whom spoke their own languages, as well as English. This prompted a natural interest in my own cultural and linguistic heritage and identity, and as I spoke English already, I became interested in other languages in my inherited cultural ‘bag’. Many years later, in somewhat sardonic adulthood, I would come to suspect that this may also have been a ironicly subconscious desire to be different & distinctive – just like everyone else…

I began to learn Irish and Scots Gaelic in late adolescence, at a time when discussions of both independence for Australia, and Aboriginal ‘Reconcilation’ were very much in the news. Awareness of the both horrific and widespread acts of genocide committed by British forces and British-facilitated settlers, in what many today regard as acts of wholly illegal invasion and industrial-scale land theft, meant I had no interest whatsoever in contributing to the British economy when I came to want to move overseas in late adolescence and experience life in the lands of my ancestors. Despite posessing a Permanent Right of Abode11 in the UK, through my English-born mother, who emigrated to Australia with her family at the age of three as one of the so-called ‘Ten Pound Poms’ during the 1950’s, I first chose to go to Belfast, despite its intimidating recent history, due to it being part of a landmass entirely separate from that of the parliamentary base of the leading forces of British Imperialism which, irrefutably, committed such widespread crimes against humanity against the indigenous peoples of Australia.

After six months in Belfast, I successfully gained a an Irish work visa for a position as an Irish-language television presenter in Dublin and stayed in Ireland until late 2010, working as a freelance translator of government documentation in Irish and as a stilt street performer. Though my abilities and growing qualifications as a fluent Irish speaker and professional translator were of great assistance in obtaining successive work visas during this period, strict visa requirements for non-EU immigrants meant the reapplication process and fear of deportation was a constant source of stress. I eventually gained an Irish passport in 2009, and after completing an M.A. in Irish Legislative & Legal Translation, moved back up to Belfast in late 2010 to further explore & develop my street performance & circus arts work.

Incidentally, during my time in the Irish Republic, I facilitated paid employment for 30 Irish and Northern Irish-based artists across some 11 different projects, productions and events. Acutely aware of the socioeconomic and cultural benefits immigrants can bring, I also co-founded iMeasc, an award-winning12 network of Irish-Speaking Immigrants, many of non-English language backgrounds. We primarily campaigned against perceptions that immigrants were inherently a threat to indigenous languages i.e. Irish Gaelic, with

10 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/scottish-affairs-committee/news-parliament- 2015/demography-devolution-scotland-skye-evidence-16-17/ 11 www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/commonwealth-citizens 12 http://www.independentstateofhappiness.com/index.php/en/awards-highlights/awards-highlights 7

several of us owning businesses or being employed using Irish Gaelic. We were particularly vocal against attempts to utilise immigrants as a weapon against the Irish language, with arguments such as “we should all speak Spanish/Mandarin etc now”, largely coming from native monoglot English-speaking Irish citizens who were against Irish Gaelic and sought to engage immigrants as, effectively, their personal trojan horse in a cultural battle that largely predated the immigrants’ presence in Ireland. Full information on this work is available on my website here.

Relocation to Scotland 2012

Whilst in Belfast in 2011-12, I was the recipient of two successive travel, research & development grants from the Colmcille Partnership Programme13 which aims to promote collaboration between speakers of Scots and Irish Gaelic. I had also previously successfully received two grants for 1 week-long periods of study in Ionad Cholm Cille, Islay (2003) and at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye (2008) for Gaelic courses tailored for Irish-speakers, in which I sought to build on my knowledge of Scots Gaelic attained in Sydney, Australia, via both my studies at Sydney University and work forwarding the Australian Scots Gaelic Summer & Autumn Schools.

The two R&D grants of £1,000 and £2,300 respectively each from Colm Cille in 2012 were to aid my exploration and development of Gaelic circus and street theatre as a fluent Irish-speaker and Gaelic learner. Both the passage of time since late adolescence, and particularly the prospect of Scotland becoming independent from the UK, rendered Scotland a vastly more appealing destination for me to seriously consider relocating to. I had also always wanted to be as fluent in Gaelic as I was in Irish Gaelic due to my family’s stronger historical connections with Scotland as previously detailed.

Given the stretch of the former British Empire’s colonial endeavours across the world, and the often attendant genocidal impacts on local populations and cultures, I suspect I would be far from alone in both viewing Scotland more positively post a potential exit from the United Kingdom, and as a potential future immigration destination.

5. Non-EU Clearances Descendant - Contribution to Scottish Employment, Economy, Education & Culture since 2013:

39 Artists & Production Support Staff

20 Projects, Festivals & Events

Approximate aggregate budget total of £68,406

After intense development work, planning & negotations with several prospective partners, including 5 meetings during one day alone during the October 2012 Dunoon National Mòd, as part of the aforesaid Travel, R&D grants, I eventually relocated my practise to Glasgow in late November 2012, and was successful in obtaining a grant of £5,000 the following March, funded by Creative Scotland, Glasgow Life and An Lòchran Glasgow Gaelic Arts Centre as part of the the Gaelic Drama Network Fund (South).

Since that time and by December 2016, working in various roles as Artistic Director, Producer, Production Manager, Performance Artist & Maker, in collaboration with a number of partners, including cultural bodies, festivals and councils across Scotland, my work will have facilitated paid employment for no less than 39 Scottish or Scottish-based Artists and Production Support Staff, including 3 Irish & Northern Irish Artists and Production Support Staff and 1 Indigenous Australian, working on 20 separate projects, festivals and events,

13 http://www.colmcille.net 8 with an approximate aggregate budget total of £68,406. Almost all of these projects have or will feature Gaelic and bilingual work as a central element.

This paid freelance work I have led and facilitated, has ranged from thousands of pounds for highly experienced and skilled arts workers, to significant paid work for young people, including seven young people receiving some of their first experiences as paid, professional performance artists, to smaller ‘bread and butter’ work for crucial performing arts production support workers, including freelance photographers, seamstresses and others.

At this juncture, it worth bearing in mind recent Highlands & Islands Entreprise (HIE) Research, which revealed the potential economic value of Gaelic as an asset to Scottish businesses, communities & the wider Scottish economy could be from £81.6m to £148.5m a year14.

In addition to other solo festival and event work, as well as my very extensive touring educational work right across Scotland, upon which I will expand shortly, my work has also supported at least 48 individual Scottish or Scottish-based businesses, 29 Accomodation providers, largely in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, totalling well over 80 business in the UK as a whole, plus sundry other Petrol Stations/Roadstop Shops, Cafés and food establishments and other supply and service providers around Scotland & the UK. This is both in the space of just over three and a half short years and almost entirely without any family financial support whatsoever.

Detailed project budgeting and freelance employment breakdowns, as well as schools and festival touring scheduling spreadsheets are all available on a confidential basis for verification by members of the Scottish Affairs Committee.

Arran to Wick, Applecross to Edinburgh, Breadalbane to Uist:

Over 750 Workshops & Performances, for 175 Schools, Communities, Festivals & Events,

Directly engaging with more than 9,400 children, young people and adults

Since July 2013, I have worked in some 175 different schools and communities in Scotland, Northern Ireland & Ireland, with the vast majority being in Scotland. This work has taken me right across Scotland’s Highlands & Islands, all the way from Arran to Wick, Applecross to Edinburgh, Breadalbane to Uist, with formal & almost entirely solo Highland and Island schools tours alone totalling some 16 weeks, or three and a half months.

To say I have had ample time to observe and reflect on both Scotland’s demographic and population challenges, and evidence of the contemporary, lasting impact of the Clearances, is somewhat of an understatement, during countless long journeys on frequently empty, lonely roads, covering vast swathes of Scotland entirely denuded of both people and any evidence of constructive, active, and normal use of its land by locals, often visiting Scotland’s smallest, most remote and sometimes endangered schools and communities, with student enrolements at several schools I have worked at between just 5 and 12 pupils.

Indeed, as a direct Clearances Descendant, with my Scottish family history since the middle ages documented in voluminous detail, it is impossible for this experience not have a powerful emotional impact, particularly as my often boistrously fun and interactive, usually bilingual, Gaelic workshops in Storytelling, Circus Skills, Graffiti Art and more, frequently described as ‘awesome’, ‘amazing’ and ‘brilliant’, contrasts so strongly, so

14 http://www.hie.co.uk/about-hie/news-and-media/archive/research-reveals-value-of-gaelic-to-businesses-and-communities-in- scotland.html#sthash.dlpeFGCv.dpbs 9 often, with the near immediate, all-encompassing silence of largely unpopulated areas as I drive to my next school, wondering how long some of these schools and communities will continue to exist at all.

A number of detailed teacher and participant evaluation sheets of my work are available in the Appendix, but since this is a long submission, and out of deference to those dealing with a daily diet of dry documents, three recently received for a recent fortnight-long Highlands tour are added below:

6. A Close Up View of Communities in Crisis & an Island Welcome - “It’s like an old people’s home here”

Conversations with teachers and locals during these tours not only revealed the challenges to the long-term viability of these schools, but of the surrounding communities as well, with one very well-known Gaelic- speaking Island Councillor welcoming me to his island and mentioning its similarity to a Nursing Home within mere seconds of introduction. As to the approriateness of a Council Representative describing his community as somewhat of an Old People’s Home in the very first minutes of a conversation with a visiting tutor, particularly one specialising in contemporary arts in Gaelic, one can only guess at the sheer urgency of the demographic challenges facing his community and the extent to which it weighs on his mind. 10

Indeed, according to Skye & Lochalsh Access Panel’s Dr Caroline Gould statements at the Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig15, many communities are facing a “Tsunami of Dementia,” “with a 149% average percentage increase forecast in people aged 60+ in Skye & Lochalsh,” far higher than many areas of the UK. Skye is one of the few post-Clearance & Famine regions to experience relative success in reversing depopulation trends, with other areas in Argyll & the islands still experiencing acute difficulties. Ironically many of these districts also contain some of the most jaw-droppingly spectacular & beautiful locations in the world, with Steven Spielberg’s BFG being just the latest major Hollywood production to recognise & utilise these attributes. Former chairmen of HIE Prof Jim Hunter added to this at the Evidence Session saying that it was “Extraordinarily difficult to see a future for community where young people are disappearing like snow on a dyke.” As Alistair Danter of Business Gateway Skye and Lochalsh put it more bluntly at that Session “We need breeding pairs”, such as the Canadian Zielsdorf and the Australian Brains families, whose monumental struggles to stay in their Highland communities I shall refer to later in terms of UK Immigration Policy, which Drew Hendry MP has previously described as “the one size fits all policy which has no bearing on the needs of Highland communities”16. Such UK policies can also be posited to effectively amount to enforced cultural amnesia, with little to no recognition evident of the long links between Scotland and its primary Clearances Refugee and emigrant destinations, nor the beneficial impacts its Diaspora can bring to the Scotland’s economic and cultural life.

7. Population Growth 1921 - 2015 in Australia & Scotland:

Australia - 5 million to 24 million, Scotland - 5 million to… 5 million

Whilst the issues surrounding UK Immigration Policy and Highland families has received much attention this year, particularly in relation to the aforementioned families, a salutory glance at the population growth journeys of the two countries over the last 100 years highlights revealing disparities between Scotland and Australia, which became an independent nation in 1901 when the British Parliament passed legislation allowing the six Australian colonies to govern in their own right as part of the Commonwealth of Australia17, effectively meaning Australia, in the oft-used terminology in relation to current Scottish political affairs, had full self-determination equivalent to what might be termed ‘Devo-Max’.

What has Australia achieved in terms of its population and demographics compared to Scotland since? As the following charts show, at the time of the First World War the population of Scotland was not that different to that of Australia’s i.e. about 5 million. Today, some 100 years later, the population of Scotland is still only some 5.2 million while the population of Australia is 24 million.

Year Scotland’s Population18 Year Australian Average population 20 1901 4,472,103 1900 3,715,000 1911 4,760,904 1911 4,425,000 1921 4,882,407 1921 5,411,000 1931 4,842,989 1931 6,500,000 1939a 5,006,700 1939 6,935,000

15 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/scottish-affairs-committee/news-parliament- 2015/demography-devolution-scotland-skye-evidence-16-17/ 16 http://www.thenational.scot/news/relaxation-of-visa-rules-at-elite-english-universities-is-a-chance-to-let-families-stay-say- mps.20807 17 http://www.australia.gov.au/about-government/how-government-works/federation 18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Scotland 20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Australia#Population 11

1951 5,095,969 1951 8,307,000 1961b 5,179,000 1961 10,391,000 1971 5,229,000 1971 12,663,000 1981 5,035,000 1981 14,695,000 1991c 5,083,000 1991 17,065,000 2001 5,062,000 2001 19,153,000 2011 5,295,000 2011 22,340,000 2015 5,373,000 19 2015 24,221,00021

Given the very well-documented struggles of Non-EU families to stay in Scotland this year, particularly those from primary Highland Clearances & Scottish Emigrant Target Countries such as Canada and Australia, it is hard not to draw the conclusion that Westminster administration policy has achieved little of note in terms of immigration and population for Scotland, when compared with other independent nations who have indisputedly powerful and *actually* fully devolved governments. Indeed at the afore-mentioned Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session, Prof Jim Hunter stated that the Highlands and Islands was, “one of the few places in Northern Europe where the population today is lower than it was 200 years ago”.

Glib assertions in relation to the differences between the alleged appeal of Scotland’s Highlands and Islands compared to Australia, with its ‘sunny climes’ and other attractions, neglect to consider aspects such as Edinburgh’s world-class historical architecture, drawing millions in each year in both people and pounds, or Scotland’s widely-recognised array of breathtaking views. Indeed this incredible beauty and the local respect & love of it is one of the primary sources of inspiration for a vast array of songs and poetry, many in Gaelic, expressing the profound and distraught grief of so many Scottish emigrants who found themselves wrenched from the land that had been their home for time immemorial.

8. Descendants of Pioneers: Non-EU Clearances Descendants, ‘Can Do’ Attitudes & Repopulating Scotland’s Remote Highland & Island Areas

Deeper understanding of the reasons for Scotland’s differing path to Australia in terms of population growth, was again provided during the Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig22, as former chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Prof. Jim Hunter referred to observations made by anti-colonial theorists, that “When people buy into the notion that their area has no future, that everything about them, their language and culture, is inferior and of no account, once you buy into that, and that all of this has to be put to one side if we’re to get on and progress, then there is no self confidence and self esteem”. Professor Hunter described this “Demoralisation and inferiorisation” as “leading to lack of entrepeneurial spirit and initiative,” and went on to state, referring to self-confidence and self esteem, that “These are the basic requirements for enterprise, often they (Highlands & Islands Clearances Emigrants) were very successful once they went to Canada and America, particularly in enterprise and ironically farming and sheep farming.”

19 http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2016/scotlands-changing-population 21 http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/0/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument 22 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/scottish-affairs-committee/news-parliament- 2015/demography-devolution-scotland-skye-evidence-16-17/ 12

It is worth remembering that at the time of widespread brutality of the Clearances evictions and the abruptness of the social change that they prompted, the prevailing Parliament compounded the inequity by implementing legislation to prohibit the use of the Gaelic language, the playing of bagpipes and even the wearing of tartan. The cumulative effect devastated the cultural landscape of many Highland communities and the resulting impact destroyed much of Scotland’s Gaelic culture23.

Prof. Hunter continued on at the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Evidence Session to affirm a the economic benefits of “Cultural activities and traditional music giving people much more of a sense of pride in their locaility, something worthwhile about their place that previous generations have been encouraged to dismiss, leading to cultivation of confidence and pride in themselves”. Further in this regard, Pete Wishart, MP also enquired at the above Session “if areas can be repopulated on foot of cultural activity”, with Gaelic forming an obvious element. To this, Prof. Hunter, who it is worth remembering again, is the former Chairman of Highlands & Islands Enterprise24 answered that “Cultural investment generates economic spinoffs in a very direct way” and “is just as important as financial and economic investment” and “also to incomers to feel that they’re coming into something distinctive”.

This is an important point to bear in mind when considering the realities of modern life for many Clearances & Scots Descendants in the main Non-EU countries discussed in this submission. While there is indisputedly much to celebrate about the life-enhancing & exciting diversity of so many modern metropolitan multicultural melting pots, the lived experience in such cities can also mean inherent challenges can exist for monoglot English-speaking people of Scots descent in finding a sense of self, rootedness and defining one’s own identity amidst suburban sprawl, living cheek by jowl with 1st and 2nd generation immigrants from non-English speaking countries, who are loudly, proudly and very obviously so closely in contact with their own cultural heritage, be that expressed by language, dress, specialist food and grocery stores, or all of the above.

That wonderful multicultural melting pot can also at times, for some, feel like a whirlpool and consciously or unconsciously create a desire to explore cultural anchor points and a deeper sense of self, family and history, connected to lands of origin in which their forebears lived for far longer than the handful of generations they have existed outwith Europe – feelings no doubt well appreciated by those behind the Homecoming Initiative.

While there are some that may rather disdainfully and insensitively accuse such people, perceived to live in materially-rich but culturally poor environments, of clutching at cultural straws, the fact still remains that such people, their children or grandchildren form what should be one of Scotland’s greatest natural resources, often sparked by the interest in Scotland passed on by grandparents, family elders and local Highland Games, Gatherings and other Celtic cultural festivals.

Perhaps my own experience of being quite an effective, very small-scale economic contributor in Scotland in a relatively short period of time, can also illustrate the many benefits non-EU Clearances Descendants, primarily in Canada, Australia, America and New Zealand, can bring to Scotland, with the can-do attitude and so-called pioneering spirit so often being ascribed to citizens of these countries.

Indeed, this hardy pioneering spirit, inherited by descendants of those who found themselves in challenging, remote and unfamiliar environments and forced to make do and forge a life for themselves, can be posited to make many of these people ideal candidates to settle in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands. This is even before taking into account the considerable wealth accumulated by many amongst Scotland’s Non-EU Clearances Descendants, which if engaged with properly, could very plausibly be leveraged to benefit communities in

23 http://paulmonaghan.scot/maiden-speech/ 24 www.hie.co.uk 13

Scotland in similar ways as the International Fund for Ireland, which has afforded such transformational benefits to considerable areas of Ireland.

Established as an independent international organisation by the British and Irish Governments in 1986 and with contributions from the United States of America, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the total resources committed to the International Fund for Ireland to date amount to £714m / €898m, funding over 5,800 projects across the island of Ireland.25 You will note the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand being precisely the self-same main Non-EU Clearances Descendant destination countries forming the basis of my submission. With “the most comprehensive Diaspora and Scots interest group database ever developed with more than 6,000 organisations worldwide” being one positive Homecoming Year outcome26, this would certainly be an excellent starting point for a Scottish-led initiative of similar to the International Fund for Ireland, as obviously would the Framework for Diaspora Engagement, also formed as part of the Homecoming Initiative, to continue its valuable work.

At the above-mentioned Evidence Session at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Jim Hunter went on to make an extremely insightful and salient point at the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Evidence Session, stating that whilst it was “In the nature of young (Highlander) people to want to explore and travel to new areas”, “Plenty of people growing up in cities here and abroad view the Highlands the same way”, and the spectacular beauty and opportunity of a different lifestyle for their children remains a strong draw for many to the Highlands and Islands, with families such as the Brains and Zielsdorfs being solid proof. That’s even without the powerful ancestral attraction to Scotland felt by so many of its Clearances Diaspora, whose ongoing huge interest in Scotland and attendant beneficial economic impact via tourism is inherently acknowledged by entire years being dedicated to drawing them to Scotland. Indeed, the choice of name for the Homecoming Year initiatives shows the depth of connection felt by both the Scottish Government and its Diaspora towards each other.

9. Homecoming Year – An Alternative View

What if Scotland’s Diaspora could really come home? The utterly horrendous experiences of both the Australian Brain & Canadian Zielsdorf families, referred to later, could lead some to think that the Scottish- Government-backed Homecoming Year initiatives are somewhat insincere. Indeed as long as Scotland’s Clearances Descendants and broader Diaspora is left to mercurial Westminster whims, the not entirely uncommon view, at least as reported to me on a recent trip to Australia, that the initiatives are merely to shake the Diaspora money tree for a finite period, before getting back to the real business of people Scotland really cares about and really wants in Scotland - that is EU migrant workers – repeatedly referred to, particularly post-Brexit referendum as being essential for dealing with Scotland’s demographic challenges– may be somewhat challenging to counter.

So what kind of beneficial economic and demographic impact could Clearances Descendants make to Scotland if Scotland’s political representatives were bold enough for Scotland to fight the admittedly challenging battle to really allow Non-EU Clearances Descendants to really come home to Scotland?

A brief view of independent research27 on the positive impact of Scotland’s first ever Homecoming Year showed it delivered a string of benefits to the country and Scottish tourism during one of the toughest economic downturns in 2010 and amid a 4% drop in international tourism numbers across the world:

25 http://www.internationalfundforireland.com/about-the-fund 26 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 27 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 14

• £53.7 million of additional tourism revenue was generated for Scotland, representing a return on investment of nearly 1:10 and 22% above the target set for the year.

• 95,000 visitors to Scotland were influenced to travel to Scotland as a result of Homecoming. 72,000 were exclusively drawn by the celebrations, with a further 23,000 citing the year as a factor in making their decision to visit in 2009.

• £154 million of positive global media coverage for Homecoming and Scotland was generated by the multi award-winning PR campaign.

10. Sqaundering one of Scotland’s Greatest Natural Resources - Disinheriting the Diaspora

How many opportunities during the two Homecoming Years was Scotland forced to shamelessly sqaunder by not being able to allow these people, with deep ancestral connections to Scotland, to have a deeper engagement with their family history, to put down roots, to grow and flourish in Scotland?

How many of those 95,000 visitors to Scotland during its first Homecoming Year took one look at the serious challenges to immigrating to Scotland as Non-EU citizens, and were forever put off returning to the land of their ancestors, a place they felt so strongly about that they travelled many thousands of miles on what for many are regrettably incredibly expensive once-in-a-lifetime journeys?

How many thousands of young Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and Americans of Scots Descent, in the full vigour of youth, have been heartbroken to have to leave Scotland after their UK Work Visas and other various options ran out? One only has to look at the enthusiasm and high representation of Australians at the Edinburgh Fringe, to wonder. Again, I reiterate former HIE Chairman, Prof. Jim Hunter’s sage observation, that whilst it was “In the nature of young (Highlander) people to want to explore and travel to new areas”, “Plenty of people growing up in cities here and abroad view the Highlands the same way”, and the spectacular beauty and opportunity of a different lifestyle for their children remains a strong draw for many to the Highlands and Islands, with myself, the Brains, the Zielsdorfs, and many others being tangible proof.

This is an utterly shameless, inexcusable, constant squandering of youth and opportunity - youth that Scottish political leaders constantly refer to as elements so critically necessary to deal with Scotland’s looming demographic challenges. Amidst the Brexit crisis, concurrent with recent and/or current serious threats of deportation hanging over the Australian Brain family and Canadian Zielsdorf family, it is admittedly some salt in a gaping wound to hear almost no reference to what could be plausibly stated to be one of Scotland’s strongest natural resources. It is not inconceivable for this to be perceived as effectively disinheriting the Diaspora of what should be one of their most precious gifts from Scotland, often amidst Scottish family histories begun abroad and stemming from a litany of injustice, death, hardship and heartbreak in Scotland, as expressed in voluminous detail in so many Gaelic songs and poetry in the 17-19th Centuries.

Again, amidst the turbulent times of the Brexit crisis, it is worth remembering the comments on Scotland’s first year of Homecoming being “set against the backdrop of a worldwide recession, and recent tourism statistics indicate that the initiative helped to cushion the industry against the worst effects of the downturn”28. This is especially relevant in the context of Ipsos-Mori Research showing a clear EU Tourism Brexit Backlash, with the following worrying findings reported, amongst several others:29

• 26% across the 8 EU countries say they are less likely to visit the UK on holiday, ranging up to 37% of Italians saying they are less likely to visit.

28 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 29 https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3766/Reactions-to-Brexit-across-16-countries.aspx 15

• Similarly, 27% say they are less likely to buy British goods or services, with again Italy most likely to say they are less likely to buy British at 43%

11. The Zielsdorfs & Brains – International Negative Publicity for Would-Be Non-EU Scottish Diaspora Immigrants

At a time of falling oil prices, Brexit implications for both trade and free movement to Scotland's Highland and Islands, and Westminster’s devastating subsidy cuts to Scotland's renewable resources sector, incredible damage has been done to what should be one of Scotland’s greatest natural resources, as the experiences of the Canadian Zielsdorf and Australian Brains families unfolded amid widespread international media coverage in major Homecoming target countries for these Non-EU citizens fighting to stay in Scotland.

If it is indeed true that 2010’s Homecoming initiative resulted in some £154 million of positive global media coverage for Scotland30, how many thousands across the global Scottish Diaspora will now associate this more recent harrowing experiences of their compatriots with Scotland instead?

The Canadian Zielsdorf Family, ironically from Calgary, from which its Mull namesake so many Clearances refugees were shipped out of Scotland forever,31 have invested some £200,000 into a vital Highland business, and received over 60 letters of support for their business visa application from their local community. The business has ties to a popular TV show, saves locals a 40-mile round trip for such basics as milk or a newspaper, and their shop is now a social hub, not just for the village, but for the rural community for miles around. Despite this, Jason Zielsdorf has had his driving licence confiscated, leaving the family virtually stranded and relying lifts from neighbours so they can make the 20 mile round trip to the nearest shops. In the words of Drew Hendry MP, they are “yet another family caught in the trap of the one size fits all policy which has no bearing on the needs of Highland communities. Instead of getting the credit for their contribution and for creating business and opportunity in a small, rural village, the family have been obstructed at every stage of their application,” with the Home Office not taking into account the seasonal nature of work in such a remote part of the Highlands in consideration of the Zielsdorf’s application. In what appears to be a brutally emotionally and financially bruising experience for this family, they have apparently “decided they have no option but return to Canada, as they cannot afford further legal challenges and continuing uncertainty.”32

Jason Zielsdorf’s frank advice for anyone from outside the EU thinking of make a life for themselves in Scotland: “I could not tell any person who wanted to come over and get an entrepreneur visa to even bother trying. You risk losing everything”33, is one of the most damning indictments of the options available for people considering moving to and investing their lives and resources in Scotland from Non-EU countries, arguably inflicting brutal damage to Scotland’s international reputation at a time when it has never needed international goodwill more and is the absolute worst message possible to members of the Scottish Diaspora.

12. Shattering the Positive Legacy of Homecoming Initiatives

And so much of the good Scottish-led work and “£154 million of positive global media coverage for Homecoming and Scotland”34 is not just undone but shattered to pieces by Westminster policies as thousands across the Scottish Diaspora watch the horrendous experiences suffered by both the Zielsdorf and Brains

30 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 31 http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/aite/Canada/calgary.html 32 http://www.thenational.scot/news/relaxation-of-visa-rules-at-elite-english-universities-is-a-chance-to-let-families-stay-say- mps.20807 33 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3620001/The-Home-Office-farce-make-blood-boil-Hard-working-family-run-Monarch- Glen-shop-ordered-leave-Britain-convicted-Iraqi-child-abuser-Albanian-killer-stay.html 34 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 16

families. In the case of the Brains family, not only has the Home Office threatened to freeze their bank accounts but “The visa refusal letter we got quite expressly stated that we had no right to appeal in the UK. We could only appeal once we got to Australia, which is effectively saying we have to take the punishment before we are allowed to appeal.”35

As for the impact the impending removal of the Zielsdorfs from Scotland on their local community in terms of local providers of essential food and groceries, it would also have the effect of removing their five children from the Highlands, an area with well-documented and serious demographic challenges.

Again, Scotland is stymied in its attempts to deal with its aging population. The contemptible treatment of the Brains family in Dingwall is compounded by the reintroduction of a pilot scheme for students at prestigious English Universities to benefit from post-study work visas, only adding insult to injury as Scotland’s needs are again totally ignored with Westminster administration of Home Affairs giving considerable lie to any assertion that Scotland has the “world’s most powerful devolved parliament”. As Ian Blackford MP rightly states, in relation to assertions he should help to assist in the Brains’ removal process, “it is contemptible. I will not do the Government’s dirty work for it. Highland history is full of stories of those who assisted with the Highland Clearances, I will certainly not be advocating and supporting a modern-day removal of families from the Highlands.”36

Whilst the recent positive decision for the Brains family is undoubtedly cause for celebration and gratitude to all those who campaigned and worked so hard to ensure their remaining in the Highlands community, it must not be forgotten that so many others like the Zielsdorfs have suffered confiscation of their driving licences, threats to freeze their bank accounts and of deportation for them and their Scottish children. Kathryn and Gregg Brain’s enduring tenacity shows just how much members of Scotland's Diaspora want to return to the land their ancestors were forced from, and just how hard some of us are willing to fight to stay here.

Though often termed as such, these cases are not so much a case of modern clearances, but ones highlighting the consequences of the Clearances as members of the Scottish Diaspora attempt to come home.

13. 3rd Class Citizen Status for Non EU Clearances Descendants – A Double Injustice

Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has gone on record to say amid the post-Brexit turmoil "We're in uncharted territory… with the opportunity to try to think things that might have previously been unthinkable and shape the future”. The opportunity here therefore is clear – both to reshape the future and also right some of the wrongs of the past, ensuring families such as the Brains, whose Scottish ancestors left Skye during the turbulent period of 1840’s, never again endure the infliction of a double injustice as Clearances Descendants and the threat of forcible removal from the land of their ancestors.

Given current trade and immigration negotiations with the EU, and potentially Australia at a later date, this is the time for Scotland to seriously look at the situation of the Clearances Descendant Diaspora in Australia, Canada, America and New Zealand. Often unable to access Ancestry Visas, with Scottish links extending past their grandparents, they are effectively treated as third class citizens and sent to the back of the queue behind the entire EU. Clearances Descendants such as the Brains should never have been left to mercurial Westminster whims and forced to jump through endless hoops – indeed prior to the more recent good news for the Brains, the family already nearly achieved fulfillment of immigration regulations some three times.

35 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3620001/The-Home-Office-farce-make-blood-boil-Hard-working-family-run-Monarch- Glen-shop-ordered-leave-Britain-convicted-Iraqi-child-abuser-Albanian-killer-stay.html 36 http://www.thenational.scot/news/we-are-not-scrapping-our-dream-on-the-say-so-of-the-immigration-minister-say-defiant- brain-family.20764

17

Clearances Descendants and broader Scottish Diaspora members in non-EU countries are perhaps those likely to most cohesively assimilate into Scottish communities, yet can face some of the biggest barriers to remaining. Indeed any family, from anywhere, so integrated within their community like the Brains and showing as serious a commitment to Scottish society and culture by educating their only child in Gaelic and completing a degree in Scottish History & Archaeology, should be allowed to stay.

George Osborne’s callous taunt earlier this year in relation to this case, that the SNP should use their “very substantial tax and enterprise powers if they want to attract people to the Highlands of Scotland” from the rest of the UK” was a display of grotesque ignorance of the sociocultural & linguistic history of Scotland and Scotland’s special relationship with people across Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America, where so many of Scotland's citizens landed after being forced from their Highland & Island homes. That this special relationship remains strong is reflected by the huge number of Highland Games and Gatherings every year across all these countries, as well as many towns bearing Scottish names, as displaced migrants sought to forever cement remembrance of their origins in their new surroundings. Osborne clearly had no understanding of the fact that the treatment of Australian, New Zealand, Canadian & American nationals of Scots descent as third-class citizens behind all others in terms of immigration serves to inflict a double injustice on the descendents of the widespread & despicable injustices wrought across the Highlands during the Clearances.

Many of these areas still suffer the contemporary consequences of that depopulation today, and the taunts about Scotland's new enterprise powers blatantly ignores the ongoing shameless sqaundering of the massively rich resource of entrepreneurship, energy and passion the Scottish diaspora can bring to Scotland,

Nicola Sturgeon stated that “For a country that needs to grow its population to help deal with an ageing population, free movement matters”. So do Clearances Descendants. When countless thousands of Scots were forced from Europe, with so many dying during the dangerous sea journeys, the inheritors of the structures of power in Scotland today have a moral duty to assist Clearances descendants who want to return home, and not just for some superficially themed year, but truly come home.

The time has come for a comprehensive Scottish-led solution for the Clearances Diaspora. This time it was the Brains of Australia, next it could be the MacKenzies of New Zealand, the Campbells of Canada or the MacLeods of America, and is quite simply an issue for the entire global Scottish Diaspora.

Scotland has already seen job losses from Westminster renewable energy development cuts, and has little need for the deeply negative messages sent to Scotland’s Diaspora during this year’s debacle over Non-EU Scots Descendants immigration. Were Kathryn and Gregg Brain to be deported, it could have resulted in them and young Gaelic-speaking Lachlann being automatically banned from returning to Scotland for 5 to 10 years – which would have been a disgraceful injustice and the fact that it even arose needs to be addressed. Scotland can and must do better for its Clearances Diaspora. We cannot change the past but we can certainly change the future and as Scotland once again finds itself in a position redolent with opportunity, the time to act is now.

14. 1% of 12 Million-strong Diaspora: Reversing Highlands Population in a Generation & Resolving it in Three

As set out in the submission to this Committee on this topic by Gregg Brain, with there being more than 12 million people claiming Scottish descent37,38,39in the USA, Canada and Australia alone, “even if just 1% took up

37 http://www.factfinder.census.gov. 38 http://www12.statcan.ca/ - 2006 census; ethnic origins data 18

the opportunity if an immigration pathway were opened up for them, then that represents over 120,000 people of Scots descent who would make their way back here to live and work. The population and demographic decline of the Highlands could be reversed in a generation, and resolved in three. The Clearance memorials all over the Highlands – the silent desolation of ruined villages lying in empty glens – could once again be filled. This ‘1%’ are people who speak the language (English), would be willing to work to support their dream and, given their passion, would put extraordinary efforts into assimilating into their ancestral communities. Cultural dissonance would be non-existent, and returns to country of origin correspondingly low. Demographically, they are likely to have either a trade or profession to be able to finance such a move across the globe, and therefore will have a skillset to support themselves on arrival. They are likely to be young, and single or relatively recently married, therefore more likely to be mobile. For the same reason, they will probably have no children yet, or very young children… these young incomers would be the foundation for the ‘breeding pairs’ so desperately needed by the Highlands and Islands”.

If even 0.5% or 0.2% of this 12 million can be encouraged and actively supported in engaging in learning Gaelic and contributing to Scottish and Gaelic cultural life as in my case, or the case of Gregg & Kathryn Brain supporting their son, Lachlann, through Gaelic-medium Education, this can also be posited to contribute to signficant improvement in current Gaelic-speaker numbers.

15. International Precedents for Ancestral Right of Return

Scotland is by no means alone in facing demographic and population challenges, whether due to emigration, historical injustices or falling birthrates. There are also several international precedents for the establishment of legal Right of Return to persons of a given nation origin, which may offer suggestions as to how Scotland can utilise its Diaspora to address demographic challenges. Global citizenship and immigration laws are as complex as they are vast, and this is only intended as a brief overview for those with the remit and resources to explore further for Scotland’s benefit.

While First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is in no doubt about the challenges post-Brexit Referendum in “exploring options that would allow different parts of this multi-national UK to pursue different outcomes… I don't underestimate the challenge of finding such a solution. Even if we can agree a position at UK level, we would face the task of persuading the EU to agree it. The barriers are substantial,”40 I understand from a recent conversation with the Scottish National Party’s International Affairs and Europe spokesman and former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, that he also has ideas in relation to EU immigration paths for Non-EU Clearances Descendants and other members of the Scottish Diaspora, which would no doubt also be worth exploring further.

Spain & Portugal 2013 & 2014 – ‘Making Amends for a Dark Chapter of History’ - Citizenship for Inquisition Refugee Descendants

On April 12, 2013, the Portuguese parliament approved unanimously an amendment to its nationality laws facilitating the naturalization of descendants of 16th-century Jews who fled because of religious persecution, with support apparently stemming from a desire to ‘make amends’ for a dark chapter of the country’s history, namely, the Portuguese Inquisition, which began in 1536 and resulted in massive expulsion of Jews. 41 It allows descendants of Jews who were expelled in the 16th century to become citizens if they show evidence of the applicant’s family history of connection to a Jewish Sephardic Community of Portuguese origin, by means of family names, language, direct or collateral descendance, or other elements which are indicative of this connection.42 The change in law gives such descendants special status and sets up a process for their

39 http://www.abs.gov.au – 2011 census; “Cultural Diversity in Australia 40 http://news.scotland.gov.uk/Speeches-Briefings/Scotland-in-EU-2772.aspx 41 http://www.timesofisrael.com/descendants-of-jews-who-fled-persecution-may-claim-portuguese-citizenship/ 42 http://www.sephardicjewsportugal.com/info/#conditions 19 ancestry to be vetted by a Federation of Jewish Communities and forwarded to authorities for approval. As one of the European Union’s most vulnerable economies in 2013, there were also apparently hopes at the time of the introduction of the legislation that the law would attract investments by Jews seeking to settle in Portugal.

In early 2014, Spain also announced new legislative measures to speed up the naturalization of Jews of Sephardic descent whose ancestors fled the Iberian Peninsula five centuries ago when they were told to convert to Catholicism or go into exile. The amended legislation reportedly smooths the bureaucracy involved in obtaining Spanish nationality for applicants who can prove their Spanish ancestry.43 This has elsewhere been reported as ‘restoring Spanish nationality’ to such individuals.44

While a lack of Spanish or Portuguese prevents me from further research on such precedents in both EU Member countries, it does not appear that consideration of knock-on effects for EU immigration has been a major barrier for Spain and Portugal to ‘make amendments for a dark chapter’ in their history. While it may be posited that the number of Sephardic Jew descendants eligible for citizenship under these rules may be vastly smaller than the Scottish Clearances Diaspora, a legal precedent has been set in not just one, but two EU member countries, and Scotland’s Demographic and Population challenges in the Highlands and Islands are such that standing ground on such precedents is warranted. The precedent for the acceptability of family names as evidence of descent (though not on that basis alone) opens up significant possibilities in terms of considering such legislation for Scotland’s Clearances Diaspora, and the ancestry vetting process also set out lays down a potential template for practical progress for Scotland in this regard as well.

In terms of language use also being amongst the eligibility criteria for Portuguese Sephardic Jews45, many Clearances Descendants, particularly in Nova Scotia, still speak Gaelic today, however the full, combined impact of a series of anti-Gaelic laws enacted by the Edinburgh Parliament in the 17th century; together with anti-Gaelic legislation after the Battle of Culloden, the refusal to allow the use of Gaelic in schools until the end of the 18th century and the Education Act of 1872 ending the use of the language in the education system46, must all be duly considered in terms of possible extension of this legislative precedent to non-Gaelic speaking Clearances Descendants and the broader Scottish Diaspora.

The fact that not just one, but two full EU Member States have apparently successfully and relatively recently amended their immigration law to address historical injustices as far back as the 14-1500’s, should surely provide some serious support to Scotland should its political representatives seek to address the dark chapters of its own considerably more recent Clearances history, for which contemporary accounts, Census data, shipping logs and immigration records are available in vastly greater detail.

Russia – The 2006 Compatriots Resettlement Program - A Step Further Down the Homecoming Path

With a forecast population decline of 141 million to 116 million by 205047, Russia’s Repatriation programme appears designed to address this demographic challenge and thus affords an opportunity to look at what an initiative, that really assists Scotland’s Diaspora in coming home, might actually look like, and also helpfully, assess its impacts.

Unsurprisingly, the Russian programme is not without challenges or critics48, however according to the Russian Regional Development Ministry's Interethnic Relations Department, about 80,000 people have been repatriated under the program since its inception in 2006, with more than 60 percent under 40 years old. Program participants must feel “cultural, historical and spiritual relation to Russia” and speak fluent Russian. A

43 http://www.timesofisrael.com/spain-speeds-up-citizenship-for-sephardic-jews/ 44 http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/213142/spain-to-restore-nationality-to-sephardic-jews.html 45 http://www.sephardicjewsportugal.com/info/#conditions 46 http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/en/colaiste/gaidhlig/ 47 http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/wpp2008_text_tables.pdf Page 25 48 http://www.refworld.org/docid/5072b7952.html 20 simplified repatriation program, to take effect in perpetuity as of Dec. 31st 2016, will even cover relocation costs, with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stating this year's funding to go to "creating conditions in the regions" for returning compatriots, including relocation-related transportation expenses and a one-time allowance — "the startup capital." 49

Eligibility for the “Compatriots Resettlement Program” includes Citizens of the Russian Federation who permanently reside outside Russia; Persons who were citizens of the USSR living in the moment, in those States and acquired citizenship of the States that were part of the Soviet Union before its collapse or became stateless; persons who come from the Russian state or emigrants who had the citizenship of the Russian Republic of the USSR, the RSFSR and the Russian Federation and become citizens of foreign States or who have a residence permit in those States or became stateless; and importantly, Descendants of all persons listed above, except the descendants of the titular Nations of foreign States. Further conditions state prospective participants must be 18 years old, be able to exercise legitimate labor activities in the territory of the Russian Federation; speak fluent Russian, have a specialty, qualification, experience, allowing legitimate labor activities in the territory of Russia and comply with all legal requirements for obtaining a residence permit in the Russian Federation50. Apparently, some people returning are also the descendants of Russians who fled Russia during the Russian revolution,51 with no less than the New York Times describing this as “one of the last unfinished chapters of the Russian Revolution”, in an interview with two programme participants who state they have “always felt like they belonged to Russia”, and were ready to uproot themselves and begin anew, “back where it all began, in a windswept coastal area in Russia’s Far East”.52

The parallels to Scotland’s windswept Highlands and Islands and the depth of afinity amongst Scotland’s Diaspora, amply stoked by the Scottish Government’s Homecoming initiative, are immediate and clear, and while the Clearances, which saw so many thousands of Scots forced from Scotland, only predate the Russian Revolution by a matter of decades, it is once again worth recalling the statement of former HIE Chairman Prof. Jim Hunter at the recent Westminster Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session on Highlands’ and Islands’ Population Challenges, that “the Clearances & famine of 1840’s were only two human lifetimes ago”.

Poland

Polish Constitution, 1997, Article 52(5): “Anyone whose Polish origin has been confirmed in accordance with statute may settle permanently in Poland.”53

Ireland

Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1986, Section 5: “The Minister may, in his absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation in the following cases, although the conditions for naturalisation (or any of them) are not complied with: (a) where the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations.”54

As the nature of both international and EU internal migration changes, national immigration laws are frequently amended to reflect this, with Ireland’s successful Referendum on the Twenty-Seventh Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2004 (Irish Citizenship)55 being a case in point, where the constitutional right to be an Irish citizen on foot of physical birth in the country, was removed, largely due to a perceived influx of primarily African refugees and economic migrants obtaining immediate EU citizenship via the previously existing provision. And it is here that the law of unintended consequences converges with global South-North

49 https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-puts-renewed-hope-in-repatriation-program-17885 50 http://pereselenie.moscow/en/who-is-eligible-to-become-a-participant-of-the-state-program-of-resettlement-of-compatriots-to- the-russian-federation.html 51 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return 52 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/world/europe/22believers.html?_r=2&hp 53 http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/pl00000_.html 54 http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1986/act/23/section/5/enacted/en/html 55 http://www.refcom.ie/en/past-referendums/irish-citizenship/ 21

migration trends and EU internal migration complexities. However, particularly given the Spanish and Portugese precedents set in 2013 and 2014, both on the basis of ‘making amends’ for dark periods in their countries’ histories going back as far as the 1400 and 1500’s, and also given the scale of the demographic challenges ahead for Scotland in terms of its aging population, it should be a matter of some urgency to explore legistlative possibilities for Scotland that allow it to address its own issues of historical injustice intersecting with contemporary repopulation efforts. While Scotland negotiates access to European markets, surely it must also negotiate access to its richest resource - the descendants of its own people scattered by physical and economic forces equal in their brutality, far from Scotland's shores.

16. Post-Brexit Possibilities

Whilst no doubt challenging on many levels, the Brexit referendum result has also reignited both interest and serious consideration of immigration options for Britain, and by extension, Scotland. Not only has Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, stated on the 10th of September, that Australia will push for more business, student and work visas for its citizens in the UK, as part of a new trade deal after Brexit, she has also stated that this was "obviously" something that could be part of the free trade agreement that the countries have agreed to negotiate after the UK leaves the European Union. The Australian Foreign Minister added “Should we be in the position to conclude a free trade agreement after Brexit then obviously this can be the subject of a free trade agreement. It's something that we were able to achieve with the United States” and “I certainly look forward to increasing the number of business visas, student visas, work visas between Australia and the UK."

What may not be widely known in Scotland is that UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has apparently “campaigned vociferously as London mayor for greater visa rights for Australians” despite an attempted government crack-down on immigration. He has also stated this September that he would continue to campaign for that as Foreign Secretary, saying "I think it would be a fantastic thing if we had a more sensible system (for Australians). This is something where I think we can make progress and I'm confident that we will."56

17. Pre-existing Campaign Groups for Free Movement Between UK-AUS-NZ & CAN

There also exists a number of groups that have been actively campaigning for some time for free movement between the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, advocacy which has grown considerably in volume since the Brexit referendum result. Organisations include the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Organisation57, which is particularly active in political lobbying and research “into the relocation intentions of citizens and residents of the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada under a freedom of movement agreement.” Other similar lobbying and research groups include The United Commonwealth Society58, a cross-party organization established since 2002 “dedicated to encouraging closer diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties between the member states of the Commonwealth of Nations”, as well as The Commonwealth Exchange,who “support the right to reciprocally to live and work freely in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK”. The Commonwealth Exchange’s latest 2016 polling in shows strong backing for such freedom of movement, reaching between nearly 60-80% support in samples (1000+ individuals) in each of the aforementioned countries. 59

Whilst proponents of utilising the latent potential inherent in Commonwealth free trade and movement agreements may argue this to be one of the main reasons for Scotland remaning in the union with England, it has been made abundantly and repeatedly clear right since the day after the Scottish Independence Referendum that Scotland is supremely unable to pursue its own best interests in that same union.

56 http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julie-bishop-says-australia-to-push-for-more-uk-visas-as-part-of-brexit- deal-20160909-grd9sk.html 57 www.cfmo.org 58 www.unitedcommonwealthsociety.org 59 www.commonwealth-exchange.org 22

Whether it be the effects of EVEL (English Votes for English Laws) effectively disenfranchising Scottish MP’s, the spectacle of Tory MP’s jeering and cheering as they voted down nearly every single amendment to the 2015 Scotland Bill proposed by Scottish MP’s, the UK’s so-called ‘broad shoulders’ affording next to no support at all amidst the current oil price crash crisis, cuts in renewable resource development subsidies leading to considerable job losses, in addition to those endangered by tax office closures and ship building delays, and finally the utterly disgraceful treatment metered out to the Brain and Zielsdorf families, who having made very considerable financial, cultural & linguistic investments in Scotland, suffering not just the confiscation of their driving licences, threats to freeze their bank accounts and of deportation for them and their Scottish children, but the imposition of automatic bans on returning to Scotland for 5 to 10 years if deported, the evidence of Westminster’s insensitive and grotesquely unintelligent, supremely undiplomatic and strategically stupid behaviour towards Scotland in very recent history appears to grow by the week.

The decision to reintroduce a pilot scheme for students at prestigious English Universities to benefit from post-study work visas, amidst the growing clamour in Scotland surrounding the threatened deportation of Kathryn Brain due to the rescinding of a similar scheme for Scottish universities, was just the latest in an increasingly long litany of diplomatic epic failures that even the most the most greenhorn student of Politics and International Diplomacy 101 could barely commit or believe but for the fact that it is exactly what Westminster has seen fit to do. With Nicola Sturgeon recently describing the absence of leadership and planning that became evident immediately after the Brexit leave vote as “one of the most shameful abdications of responsibility in modern political history” 60, the oft-quoted Independence campaign slogan of ‘Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands’ has vastly more concrete supporting evidence than ever before.

While the recent positive decision in relation to Kathryn Brain was undoubtedly fantastic news, with those in the Brain's Highland community, local & national Scottish political representatives and media all deserving of considerable appreciation for their tireless efforts supporting the family, its announcement the day after the two-year anniversary of the Scottish Independence Referendum suggested that perhaps someone, somewhere, in the Westminster Home Office, has at least come into the the kindergarten of diplomatic intelligence when it comes to Scotland, or at least sniffed a whiff of it wafting down from ‘Freedom Alley’…

A great battle has indeed been won in terms of the Brains, but much more needs to be done to win the war and ensure Scotland’s Diaspora, and particularly its Clearances Descendants, can truly come home.

18. EU Investment Hubs, Joined Up Thinking & Homecoming

With the recently announced investment of £3.5 million61 as part of wider post Brexit referendum planning, to set up new innovation and investment hubs in London, Dublin and Brussels to help attract more businesses to Scotland, raise Scotland's international profile, grow export links and attract inward investment, and effectively place the Scottish Government, enterprise agencies and Visit Scotland under one roof to provide a 'touch down' and meeting space for Scotland's businesses and other organisations, one can only wonder, given not just one but two years being entirely devoted to attracting Scotland’s Diaspora ‘home’, why primary Clearances & Scottish Emigrant Target Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US have not been included in such plans.

The Scottish First Minister’s repeated choice of language of late should surely support the inclusion of these countries and the ‘thinking outside the box’ approach required in the post-EU referendum period, “where

60 http://www.thenational.scot/news/sturgeon-hits-out-at-mays-increasing-negligence-over-brexit.21541 61 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/09/2860/5 23 growing Scotland's trade links has never been more important.”62 Nicola Sturgeon described a major new half- billion pound economic initiative for a Scottish Growth Fund, to guarantee private sector loans as “an exceptional response to an exceptional economic challenge”63, additionally stating “These are unprecedented times and we need to find unprecedented solutions to protect our best interests”64. Elsewhere the First Minister has affirmed "We're in uncharted territory, and when you are in uncharted territory with effectively a blank sheet of paper in front of you, then you have the opportunity to try to think things that might havepreviously been unthinkable and shape the future. I think there are opportunities”65.

In addition to proposing the establishment of the above mentioned innovation and investment hubs, bringing Scottish Government, enterprise agencies and VisitScotland “under one roof”, in primary Clearances, Diaspora and Homecoming Campaign Target Countries, as part of a ‘joined-up thinking’ approach cognisant of the urgent need to forge new alliances amidst the tectonic geopolitical shifts in the current post-Brexit global environment, I would also suggest that funding revenue forecast to be available from devolved management of the Crown Estate in Scotland66 be used to assist Clearances Descendants and the broader Scottish Diaspora in resettling in Scotland. In this regard, it is worth considering the precedent of Russia’s Compatriots Resettlement Program, in view of its own projected demographic decline from 143 million to 107 million by 205067, and the Russian Prime Minister’s assertion that funding from 2016’s revised programme will go to "creating conditions in the regions" for returning compatriots, including relocation-related transportation expenses and a one-time allowance — "the startup capital." 68

Further to Nicola Sturgeon’s recent assertion of Scotland being “a land of inventors, innovators, new ideas and creativity” and that it needs “a thriving and dynamic ecosystem in order to improve productivity, competitiveness and growth”69, I would strongly posit that returning Non-EU Clearances and broader Diaspora Descendants can also provide this dynamism and bring innovation, new ideas and creativity, particularly supporting Scotland’s sometimes struggling rural economic ecosystem, as have the Zielsdorfs, who it is worth remembering, invested some £200,000 into a vital Highland business, and received over 60 letters of support for their business visa application from their local community. Their shop became a social hub, not just for the village, but for the rural community for miles around, yet they have apparently “decided they have no option but return to Canada, as they cannot afford further legal challenges and continuing uncertainty”70 on foot of Westminster’s “one size fits all policy which has no bearing on the needs of Highland communities,71” according to their MP, Drew Hendry.

If Scotland has the 'most powerful devolved government in the world', why doesn't have control over its own Immigration Policy, or why can't it engage a massive natural and already existing resource already available to it? Holyrood Minister Keith Brown spoke earlier this year of his plan “to make Scotland a more productive

62 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/09/2860/5 63 http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/-500m-new-support-for-businesses-2a31.aspx 64 http://www.thenational.scot/news/sturgeon-hits-out-at-mays-increasing-negligence-over-brexit.21541 65 http://stv.tv/news/scotland/1360941-scotland-could-hold-second-independence-referendum-next-year/ 66 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/8344/2 67 https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-puts-renewed-hope-in-repatriation-program-17885 68 https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-puts-renewed-hope-in-repatriation-program-17885 69 https://www.strath.ac.uk/whystrathclyde/firstglimpseinsideworld-leadingtechnologycentre 70 http://www.thenational.scot/news/relaxation-of-visa-rules-at-elite-english-universities-is-a-chance-to-let-families-stay-say- mps.20807 71 http://www.thenational.scot/news/relaxation-of-visa-rules-at-elite-english-universities-is-a-chance-to-let-families-stay-say- mps.20807 24

country through innovation, investment, internationalisation & inclusive growth72” - surely Scotland's Global Diaspora should be facilitated in every way possible to form part of this?

19. Land Reform, Community Sponsorship & Scottish Diaspora Return Immigration Development

With the forthcoming implementation of the Land Reform Act and the taking forward of measures in the Community Empowerment Act as first steps towards making it easier for people to develop their local economies and environments,73 the concurrence of this process with repeated references to the Clearances during the lengthy duration of the Brains family case, widespread publicity and sell-out tours for the classic Scottish Play dealing with the Clearances, The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil in both 2015 and 2016, two consecutive years of the Our Land Festival and ardent land reform campaigning, spearheaded by household-name journalist Lesley Riddoch and longtime campaigner, now Green Party MSP, Andy Wightman, author of The Poor Had No Lawyers, Who Owns Scotland (And How They Got it), means the issue of Population, Demographics, Immigration and Non-EU Clearances Descendants immigrants cannot be viewed outwith the prism of Land Reform.

Indeed, how can land reform be truly addressed in Scotland without addressing the legacies of historical illegal clearances, often involving what effectively were crimes against humanity and illegal land theft, or seriously considering the situation of Non-EU Clearances Descendants who wish to reconnect with and settle in Scotland? That such descendants can feel a strange sense of homecoming when coming to Scotland for the first time can hardly be dismissed when the Scottish Government-led Homecoming campaign seemed deliberately designed to pull on some of the most powerful and deepest heartstrings of human emotions.

Even without tourism campaigns seeking to stoke such feelings and set up, what are often effectively, the descendants of the dispossessed, to feel that they have arrived in and can stay at a place called ‘home’, it is far from unheard of for Non-EU Clearances Descendants and the broader Scottish Diaspora to feel a quasi spiritual or otherwise hard-to-pin-down feeling of deep connection with this Scotland once they get here. Indeed, it is understandable that they may feel badly let down when they seriously try to do this, and then are effectively threatened with deportation. It is thus to the great credit of Scotland’s political representatives that they have fought tooth and nail for the Brains family, and some might say, so they should, given that they had been prompted to attempt to return to Scotland on foot of taking the Homecoming message to heart.

While there have been positive developments in Scottish policy including the introduction of the Community Empowerment Act last year, which extends the community right to buy, making it simpler for them to take over public sector land and buildings, and aims to put community planning as a statutory obligation74, this should also provide an opportunity to seriously look at forging links between communities, seeking to buy land within their locality and repopulate their areas, and Non-EU Clearances Descendants & members of the broader Scottish Diaspora who may wish to return to Scotland. The positive impact and potential of such partnerships engaging with Scotland’s Diaspora is further evidenced by Dr Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, in relation to Homecoming, stating that it “showed the strength of everyone in tourism working together and the power of partnerships - from the smallest school and community group to every local authority and major festivals.” 75

In this vein, it would be worth exploring the potential for communities engaged in local land reform, buyouts and repopulation efforts to potentially ‘sponsor’ Non-EU Scottish Diaspora members with ancestors from the local area. Such sponsorship could take many forms, one being perhaps support for an application for small travel, research and development grants from the Government, to assist Diaspora members in exploring possibilities for resettlement in Scotland for them, their family or business. Again, funding revenue forecast to

72 http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Taking-Scotland-s-economy-forward-250b.aspx 73 http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/-500m-new-support-for-businesses-2a31.aspx 74 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/08/edinburgh-endarkenment-public-land-luxury-hotel-india-buildings 75 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 25 be available from devolved management of The Crown Estate in Scotland76 may be of use in this regard, and a case may also be made for the thinking that led to £3.5 million77 being made available to set up new innovation and investment hubs in London, Dublin and Brussels, to be extended to Scottish Diaspora Return Immigration Development.

Applications to take part in such a sponsorship program could potentially include requirements for evidence of the applicant’s family history of connection with Scotland - as set out in detail in the case of Portugal’s amendment of its nationality laws facilitating the naturalization of descendants of 16th-century Jews who fled because of Inquisition-related religious persecution78 - as well as evidence of serious study of Gaelic or other subjects related to Scotland as deemed sufficent, written evidence outlining how such travel, research and development grants would be used as well as expected outcomes and deliverables negotiated in partnership with sponsor community bodies.

I have no small amount of experience of how such small travel, research and development grants can lead to considerable benefits to Scotland’s economic and cultural life, with the two original R&D grants of £1,000 and £2,300 respectively each from The Columba Initiative79 in 2012 eventually leading to both my relocation to Glasgow from Belfast, and between 2013 and 2016, some 20 Projects, Festivals & Events, providing paid employment to 39 Artists & Production Support Staff, with an approximate aggregate budget total of £68,406, with almost all projects featuring Gaelic and bilingual work as a central element. This work has also supported at least 48 individual Scottish or Scottish-based businesses, 29 Accomodation providers, largely in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, totalling well over 80 business in the UK as a whole, in addition to over 750 Workshops & Performances, for 175 Schools, Communities, Festivals & Events, almost entirely in Scotland, directly engaging with more than 9,400 children, young people and adults and many thousands more via my street theatre and spectacle work.

This is but one very concrete example of what Scotland’s Non-EU Clearances Descendants and broader Diaspora can contribute, and it is worth remembering that my original Scottish ancestor was my Great- Grandfather’s Grandfather. It can happen and it can work, and with the right resources supporting information dispersal to communities wishing to avail of the opportunities inherent with the Community Empowerment Act, and connecting them with “the most comprehensive Diaspora and Scots interest group database ever developed with more than 6,000 organisations worldwide”80 developed on foot of the Homecoming Initiatives, Gregg Brain’s assertion in his submission to this Committee, that “even if just 1% would take up an opportunity if an immigration pathway were opened up for them, then that represents over 120,000 people of Scots descent who would make their way back here to live and work. The population and demographic decline of the Highlands could be reversed in a generation, and resolved in three”, can be posited to look more of a real possibility. The Brain and Zieldorf families and myself constitute further hard evidence of Gregg Brain’s statement that “This ‘1%’ are people who speak the language (English), would be willing to work to support their dream and, given their passion, would put extraordinary efforts into assimilating into their ancestral communities.”

For this reason, all those advocating Land Reform in Scotland would do well to consider centrally integrating immigration reform, to allow more of Scotland’s Non-EU Diaspora and Clearances Descendants to truly come home, into their vital and ongoing work to create strong and sustainable communities against looming demographic crises.

76 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/8344/2 77 http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/09/2860/5 78 www.sephardicjewsportugal.com/info/#conditions 79 http://www.colmcille.net/ 80 http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre/homecoming_impact.aspx 26

At the Westminster Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session, 4th July, on the Population Challenges of the Highlands and Islands at Scotland’s Gaelic University, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig,81 Chris Law MP asked what lessons could be learned from history regarding population decline in Scottish Highlands. Prof. Jim Hunter, former Chairperson of HIE, answered “Creating as much autonomy as possible within the locality was crucial to the success of repopulation and enterprise support initiatives in Highlands and islands”. Professor Hunter went onto to cite that a “downside of Scotland in last 10 years has been the re-centralisation of powers and enterprise groups within the Highlands to Edinburgh, and within the Highlands & Islands to Inverness” and that “HIE is regarded now as a delivery agency whose job it is to deliver Edinburgh Government policy in the Highlands and Islands”. Hunter summarised the lesson thus “Not to believe that devolution of power should stop at devolution from Westminster to Edinburgh, but also from Edinburgh to the Highlands and Islands.” This should be an important consideration to both remember and enact in terms of current Land Reform activity intersecting with Scottish Diaspora Return Immigration Development.

20. ‘Digital Clearances’

While the modern-day threat of the removal of families such as the Brains and Zielsdorf from the Highlands swiftly and understandably evoked memories of the Clearances in the public’s mind, despite there being little corelation in terms of scale, brutality and targetting of poor indigenous Scots for assisted overseas removal, what has been termed ‘Digital Clearances’ is perhaps arguably a more formidable and widespread current phenomenon which is posing immediate and constant threats to retaining young people and attracting immigrants to the Highlands and Islands, as rural communities are excluded from social and economic opportunity by lack of access to the internet. Telecoms and broadband are reserved to Westminster, yet unfortunately, going north in Scotland can still mean going without and encountering ‘not spots’ so numerous, managing business correspondence either on the road or based in the Highlands and Islands can be a serious challenge. The Digital Stone Age & Internet Access Now a UN Basic Human Right Having travelled in many of these communities for work, I can personally certainly attest to the utterly woeful levels of internet, mobile phone and even radio reception across significant swathes of the Highlands and Islands, and the serious challenges I have encountered on tour whilst trying to keep on top of work emails and calls to ensure I would have work after the prevailing engagement. I would actually go as far as saying that it feels like many areas are effectively living in the digital stone age, the impact of which is felt particularly by businesses providing accommodation, where apparently the first question many guests regularly ask before booking is often whether wifi access is available. Access to broadband and phone reception is so fundamental, that I go to significant lengths researching Trip Advisor and online accommodation reviews to search for accommodation with verifiably good quality wifi, with food and bed provision coming after in terms of personal priority. Whilst there are certainly issues with incomers who move to remote areas of Scotland and go onto oppose local-led essential development in those communities, wishing them to forever remain in the same ‘pristine’, or ‘untouched’ state they may have experienced them in as holiday-makers, an issue which I will discuss shortly, with the United Nations resolving earlier this year that access to the internet is to be considered a basic human right82, it has to be of serious concern that the experience of the many thousands of tourists each year to H&I areas in terms of internet access is often likely to be so poor, that many would not even contemplate returning to these areas to live. Indeed the popularity of such areas amongst retirees is telling in this regard. Elgar Finlay, project manager for North Skye Broadband, spoke83 of communities’ desperation for broadband access, saying “Some areas of Scotland, in particular the Highlands, are facing what could easily be described

81 http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/scottish-affairs-committee/news-parliament- 2015/demography-devolution-scotland-skye-evidence-16-17/ 82 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/audio/2016/jul/29/internet-access-human-right-tech-podcast 83 https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/9283/scottish-government-should-go-back-drawing-board-rural-broadband-report-says 27 as the Digital Clearances due to the lack of basic infrastructure. Many of our communities and businesses are struggling with less than 1Mbps [megabits per second] and the digital divide between the cities is ever increasing. People in rural communities are now effectively being forced to move simply to get access to what is becoming the norm in our cities and is even more vital for our remote and fragile communities.” In a recent report84, launched by Scottish Rural Action (SRA), Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), a government initiative led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, is strongly criticised, with SRA arguing that BT- partnered programmes are supplier led rather than focusing on community need. Scottish Rural Action is urging the Scottish Government to invest more in backhaul, which is what connects individual networks to the internet and would allow communities to set up their own networks, rather than waiting for the roll out of programmes over which they have no control. This recommendation comes in light of long waits for communities anticipating BT coverage and a protracted procurement process with CBS. Amanda Burgauer, chair of SRA, stated “SRA feels that if the Scottish Government focused investment on backhaul provision, it would give the rural economy a boost, as local businesses and community groups would then be able to develop local solutions. It’s in every community’s interest to have superfast broadband and this is more likely to meet the 100 per cent target than the current approach. Communities have found it extremely difficult to find out what to expect for their area and projects have been delayed for long periods, years in many cases, trying to find out whether they will be covered or not. Public information does not always tie in with information shared by BT with both Scottish Government and local authorities,” it stated. Elgar Finlay again added, “Given the skill base and talent at the disposal of some community projects such as North Skye Broadband, there is no doubt that the procurement process would be almost at conclusion by now if we were offered direct financial support rather than being forced through a drawn out and over complicated CBS process . A report by Audit Scotland last month indicated that the programme is on track to meet its 2017 target of 95 per cent, but that “so far, most of the roll-out has been concentrated on easier-to-reach areas”. Reaching the final five per cent is expected to be a greater challenge. Data presented by Audit Scotland shows that six council areas are yet to achieve the contractual target of 75 per cent access to fibre broadband: Perth and Kinross, Highland, Argyll and Bute, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, and the Western Isles. Local authorities with more rural and remote areas are those with the lowest levels of access so far, while West Dunbartonshire, Dundee City, and North Lanarkshire have the highest. The issue was also referred to at the Westminster Scottish Affairs Committee Evidence Session at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, by former Chairman of HIE Prof. Jim Hunter, whilst mentioning that what attracts people to these places is indeed the highly attractive natural environment, that high quality of IT and other related infrastructure is essential to support further development. Prof. Hunter went on to talk of how the Island of Iona was once a centre of Europe, producing, in an age well before the advent of internet, the Book of Kells, now one of the premier works of art reknowned around the world and a major tourist attraction in Dublin, Ireland. He affirmed that there “was no inherent or intrinsic reason” why such areas in the H&I could not be similar centres of innovation once again.

While the Scottish Government, in response to the above report, affirmed digital connectivity’s place at the heart of its agenda and recognised “that more can and must be done to improve connectivity, particularly in our most remote and rural communities,”prominent journalist Lesley Riddoch has recently stated that “Nicola Sturgeon’s 2015 pledge to conne t 100 per cent of properites by 2020 simply won’t happen unless the Scottish Government tears up the existing model of broadband rollout and starts again”.85 Fergus Ewing, MSP & Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism has since responded86but regrettably, due to severe time constraints and an extremely heavy work schedule, I am unable to properly consider and include this latest development in this submission.

84 https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/9283/scottish-government-should-go-back-drawing-board-rural-broadband-report- says 85 http://www.thenational.scot/comment/lesley-riddoch-the-governments-failed-on-broadband---heres-how-to-fix-it.22978 86 http://www.thenational.scot/business/minister-hits-back-at-digital-plan-critics.23081 28

21. Clearances by Another Name? Wealthy Retirees, Affordable Housing, Sustainable Communities & Local- led Development

The continued emphasis of the importance of tourism to the Highland and Islands’ economy can be somewhat of a double-edged sword. Apart from the morally distasteful concept of many of the most beautiful areas of Scotland gradually being emptied of young indigneous Scots and increasingly becoming akin to mere playthings for those fortunate enough to be in a position to take time out of paid work or not to work at all, rather than healthy, vibrant and self-sustaining communities that existed for centuries prior to the upheavals of the 17th-19th centuries, the reliance on a particular type of ‘incomer’ to sustain communities, whether they be seasonal incomers on holidays or those moving or retiring to areas after frequent holidaying there, can be problematic in terms of local-led essential development required to provide affordable housing and modern-day ammenities expected and deserved by young Scottish families.

Widespread anecdotal evidence suggest serious issues are frequently encountered with incomers, particularly retirees, who move to remote areas of Scotland and go onto oppose local-led essential development in those communities, wishing them to forever remain in the same ‘pristine’, or ‘untouched’ state they may have experienced them in as holiday-makers. Recent conversations with one 40-50 year old gentleman in particular, having extensive cross-border family connections and lived in a popular Highland holidaying area for some 12 years as sustainable development advocate, builder and holiday home owner, provided an opportunity for him to articulate his passionate feelings on the issue to me at great length, advocating in detail his proposal that non-resident owners of holiday homes should pay double council tax if the home is used for less than a certain period a year.

He suggested that this second council tax be put into an allocated fund ringfenced for local affordable social housing for for residents and families to ensure sustainable development so these areas can retain the critical mass required to support the normal modern facilities essential for communities to function and prosper. Interestingly, this proposal received enthusiastic support from two other passing English-born retirees, also working in a voluntary capacity in the community, and the individual in question went on to assert that the proposal would encounter little opposition politically as non-resident holiday home owners largely don’t vote in local elections.

With wealthy Southern retirees, whether from England, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or indeed any other large city, who have accumulated significant capital assets whilst working city jobs with city wages for many years, and thus able to purchase what are now expensive houses in visually stunning Highlands & Islands areas, it could be difficult to dispute this being Clearances under another guise, whereby those with money use the power this affords them to come into communities and effectively force the indigenous young from them through lack of affordable housing.

Regardless of the passionate advocacy of a local English-born resident against his fellow wealthier retiring compatriots pushing up local house prices and thus endangering the sustainable future of a community he has come to love and word hard to contribute to, conversations with Highland Gaelic-speakers show this to be a complex issue, with the English gentleman’s proposal having an attendant downside for local Scots-born families.

The example was offered of older couple who have raised their family in a relatively remote H & I area, and go on to want to sell up and move south to be closer to children who have moved away. If differing Council taxes for resident homes versus holiday homes were implemented, and had the previously mentioned English-born gentleman’s desired effect of lowering house prices, this Highland family may then not be in a position to afford to purchase a house in an area close to their children to support both their upbringing, and potentially, intergenerational Gaelic language transmission.

Perhaps differing land, property or council tax rates for those having lived, worked and raised children in a particular area and for those arriving at a later stage of life may be an option, with even The Financial Times 29 newspaper advocating that “It should be up to local authorities freely to determine property taxes. The planning system must be made to listen less to comfortable homeowners … The politics of building more houses is as tortuous as the economics is clear. But the current state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. What Britain needs is a government brave enough to trumpet the virtue of falling house prices, and to make it happen.”87

However issues of sustainable communities and affordable housing for younger generations is far from solely a Highlands and Islands issue, with Andy Wightman, Lothian MSP and housing spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, recently writing of one of his Edinburgh constituents stating he was the only resident in his tenement stair, with the remainder being Airbnb flats, second homes or student lets, and saying "We are heading to a place where we have little in the way of community any more" – directly analogous to the previously discussed Highlands issue. Andy Wightman suggests “This could be resolved by changes to the planning regime to make a range of residential use - student accommodation, holiday homes, retirement homes and so on - subject to planning consent so that housing allocation can be better designed to match the needs of communities.This would allow, for example, democratic oversight of the number of holiday homes in fragile rural areas as well as in the heart of Edinburgh's Old Town. Above all, we need to transform our whole approach to housing in this country and challenge the model we have inherited - a model that is failing and one which is not delivering for an ever-increasing proportion of the population”88.

Indeed, it is now being “taken for granted that the only people who can afford to buy their own homes in many parts of the country, not only in London, will do so because of inherited wealth. This is now the great divide and, as social housing is run down, it is unbridgeable89.

As the inability of younger generations, so-called the ‘Doomerang Generation’ to acquire a home in which to set down roots and raise families, particularly in any way geographically close to familial support networks, becomes more of an issue across the UK, and more acutely so in London, it appears that the time has already arrived for frank discussions of implications for the growth of new taxpayers and the courage to tackle an issue that is increasingly becoming a critical demographic crisis for communities not just all over the UK, but the world. London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is shortly to launch the UK’s most comprehensive inquiry into the impact of foreign investment in London’s housing market90, amidst concerns that, what is effectively ‘incomer’ wealth, is pricing locals out of living in London, in ways not entirely dissimilar those previously discussed in the Highlands.

In evidence of not just the seriousness with which this crisis is viewed, but also the courage many cities have shown in tackling this crisis, the Canadian city of Vancouver has also recently taken the radical move of now charging an extra 15% to any overseas investor buying property there. It is not alone in enforcing restrictions on ‘incomer’, foreign or non (full-time) resident purchase of local land and housing to ensure sustainable populations and communities, with countries such as Switzerland, New Zealand, Fuji, India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia utilising a variety of approaches already.91

At this juncture, I would like to mention several English people I have met in my work and travels across Scotland, a number of whom are in positions of influence, from small scale to regionally significant, whose respect for and interest in Gaelic, and hard work in their communities either to learn Gaelic, support or

87 https://www.ft.com/content/1b66045c-9a52-11e4-8426-00144feabdc0?siteedition=intl 88 http://stv.tv/comment/1367198-we-must-lay-the-foundations-of-a-progressive-housing-policy/ 89 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/25/housing-crisis-jobs-babies-inequality-growing-up-world-changed- young-people-capitalism-failures-adulthood 90 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/29/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-inquiry-foreign-property-ownership 91 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/30/vancouver-canada-house-prices-solution-super-heated-housing-market

30

promote Gaelic-language work, has made a considerable impresson. Their interest, enthusiasm and kindness I will not forget, and it is extremely important to remember the diversity of people living in Scotland and avoid simplistic black and white statements and generalisations, which can be dangerous and destructive on a number of levels.

22. Closing Summary - Turbulent Times Redolent with Opportunity

If Scotland truly has the 'most powerful devolved government in the world', it must also have control over its own Immigration Policy to deliver distinctive answers for its distinctive challenges and population, with the freedom and power to engage a massive and already existing natural resource.

As legislative precedents already exist for EU Member States to amend their nationality laws as recently as 2013 and 2014, to ‘make amends for a dark chapter of their history’ going as far back as the Spanish & Portuguese Inquisition in the 14th and 15th centuries92, Scotland should be afforded the opportunity to do likewise, both to make amends for the grievous and very well documented injustices inflicted on largely Gaelic-speaking Highland and Island communities during the much more recent Clearances, and to tackle the widespread and serious population and demographic challenges that have largely arisen as a direct consequence of the Clearances.

Members of the Highland Clearances Diaspora in non-EU countries are some of those likely to most cohesively assimilate into Scottish communities, yet these are precisely the people to face some of the biggest barriers to remaining here, and are essentially treated as third class citizens and sent to the back of the queue behind the entire EU, if they are considered at all. Scottish legislators much ensure future Non-EU families never again have to endure the infliction of a double injustice as Clearances Descendants and suffer threats of forcible removal from the land of their ancestors. Were Kathryn & Gregg Brain deported, they and young Gaelic- speaking Lachlann would have been automatically banned from returning to Scotland for 5 to 10 years – this would have been a disgraceful injustice and the fact that it even arose needs to be addressed.

The conclusion is clear – Scotland can and must do better for its Clearances Diaspora, and recent Spanish and Portuguese amendments to their nationality laws for Inquisition Refugee Descendants provide both the international and EU legal precedent as well as a template for both eligibility criteria and application, with the Russian Compatriots Resettlement Programme providing ample material for assessing and evaluating a range of procedural ways forward.

When the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for the Economy speaks of Holyrood plans to make Scotland a more productive country through internationalisation & inclusive growth – this plan must include Scotland's Non-EU Clearances Descendants and broader Diaspora, from both a historical justice perspective and to utilise already existing goodwill and familial heritage links. George Osborne’s callous taunt earlier this year in relation to Brains case, that the SNP should use their “very substantial tax and enterprise powers if they want to attract people to the Highlands of Scotland” from the rest of the UK”, ignores the fact that Westminster’s one size fits all immigration policy has no bearing on the needs of Highland communities and this year has forced a Canadian family that have invested some £200,000 into a vital Highland business, to decide they have no option but return to Canada, as they cannot afford further legal challenges and continuing uncertainty.”93

Scotland’s Diaspora dare to dream and hold incredible entrepenurial power, passion and potential, which Westminster would do well to recognise. The Scottish natural resource sector has already seen significant job losses from Westminster subsidy cuts, and Scotland can ill afford further hindrance of the full utilisation of

92 http://www.sephardicjewsportugal.com/info/#conditions 93 http://www.thenational.scot/news/relaxation-of-visa-rules-at-elite-english-universities-is-a-chance-to-let-families-stay-say- mps.20807 31 what should be its other greatest natural resource. Many abandoned and now silent glens may have a descendant alive today amongst the Scottish global diaspora who has a deep family connection to the area and potential passion that can be engaged for the benefit of the Scotland’s economy and communities. Thousands of people of Scots descent are inspired to return to the land of their ancestors by the activities of Highland and Celtic cultural societies around the world, and the inheritors of the structures of Scottish political power must surely advocate, from both a historical justice, economic and demographic perspective, that these people should have a path open to them should they wish to return and contribute to positive, constructive, restorative justice for the dark chapters of history that forced their ancestors out of Scotland in the first place.

Opportunities for immigration reform and constructive restorative justice can also be an opportunities for growth and investment. If one person, like me, can contribute what I have to the Scottish Economy, Employment & Cultural Life over the last three and half years, by providing paid employment to some 39 individuals, supporting over 80 business and delivering over 700 workshops and performances with some 175 Schools, Communities, Festivals & Events, with almost no family financial support whatsoever, so can thousands of others across the Scottish Clearances & Descendant Diaspora in Australia, New Zealand, Canada & America.

I am not special. The potential, passion and ability lies not just within me, the Brain or Zielsdorf family, but within hundreds of thousands of people of Scottish descent spread across Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, far too many of whom are only able to reconnect for the duration of a short, once-in-a- lifetime trip or short term visa with that deeper sense of self that comes from living, laughing and loving in this land that their ancestors called home for millennia before the handful of generations their closer relatives have lived in lands cast far from Scotland's shores.

Many of us also bring an acute awareness of injustices often wrought by our Scottish & British ancestors against local indigenous populations and the grievous contemporary consequences, giving us a uniquely personal insight into issues of language and justice relevant to Scotland's diverse indigenous populations and their varying fortunes in Scotland today. As some watch indigenous communities rightly and finally gaining proper ownership of their ancestral lands, it is no longer tolerable that Non-EU Clearances Descendants and Scottish Diaspora members are denied the opportunity to do the same in the place where their roots are longest.

While the recent positive decision from the Home Office in relation to the Highlands Brain family is an incredibly joyous cause for celebration in Scotland, it does not change anything on a macrolevel. This is still the very same Home Office that reintroduced a pilot post-study work visa scheme over the summer for prestigious English Universities, yet totally ignored pleas from Scotland for similar reintroductions for Scottish Universities in areas with well-documented and serious demographic challenges. Indeed, it has long been clear, particularly since late 2014, that the Westminster administration pays little real heed to the well- founded recommendations and desires of Scots for their own country, proving more than ever that Scotland’s future will only be best served in Scotland’s hands.

A great battle for the Brains has been won, but much more needs to be done to win the war and ensure Scotland’s Diaspora, and particularly its Clearances Descendants, can truly come home. We cannot change the past but we can change the future and, amidst turbulent times and ongoing international discussions and negotiations on trade and immigration, as Scotland finds itself in a position redolent with opportunity, I do believe, the time to act is now.

32

23. Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks primarily to The National newspaper, and National journalist, Gregg Russell, for continually highlighting the difficulties for Scotland inherent in the UK Home Office’s ‘one size fits all’ approach to immigration, via its many articles this year focussing on the severe difficulties encountered by immigrants to Scotland, several with Scottish-born children or Scottish spouses, as they sought leave to stay in Scotland, particularly in Highland communities facing long-term population and demographic challenges.

Particular thanks are also due to the titan efforts of Scottish parliamentary representatives at both Holyrood and Westminster to secure leave to remain for the Brain family in particular, as well as several other Highland families facing serious immigration difficulties, who have understandably been less confident in engaging with the media to highlight their case.

On a personal note, I am not entirely sure I would have been able to complete this lengthy submission without the personal contact with Scottish Parliament Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, and former Scottish Scottish Parliament First Minister and Scottish National Party International Affairs and Europe spokesman, Alex Salmond. Though I have been publicly advocating on this issue since May, during the writing of this submission, I have recently been largely working seven day weeks across more than four festivals and events, and battling exhaustion as I sought to complete this. I would like to thank John Swinney for introducing himself to me entirely unprompted at a recent conference as I walked in the general direction of an organisational Chief Executive who had employed me for a recent fortnight-long festival tour. I have had to approach or present material to quite a few politicians and people in high positions of influence in advocating for various issues94 over the years, including frank yet cordial discussions with Janet Archer, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, over funding issues for the Oban Royal National Mòd last year, which may have come to the attention of some reading this submission. I had not begun to think about whether I would approach Deputy First Minister John Swinney or not, and was grateful that decision was effectively taken out of my hands as he outstretched his in warm welcome and invitation to chat briefly.

I doubt very much John Swinney knew who I was and am sure this is something he does at most if not all of his many engagements across Scotland, as a prominent Scottish public servant. Scotland is fortunate to have what are, effectively their Vice and former Prime Ministers, who are so willing to take the limited time they have to offer an outstretched hand and listening ear to their constituents, effectively on a national basis. Their interest and thoughts shared with me on the issues in this submission helped power at least 5 hours of work each on it, and for this, at what has been an extremely challenging time on a number of fronts, I am grateful, as it has helped me give voice to thousands of Scots who never made shore as forced Clearances emigrants, and their descendants who did.

Ariel Killick Glasgow October 2016 www.independentstateofhappiness.com

94 http://www.independentstateofhappiness.com/index.php/en/awards-highlights/awards-highlights 33

24. Appendix: Teacher & Participant Evaluation of Ariel Killick’s Gaelic Work

A rdross

Pr i m ar y Scho o l

Please ask for:

Direct Dial:

E-mail:

Your Ref:

Our Ref: OM/FEM

Date: 26th March 2015

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

FEEDBACK FROM VISIT BY ARIEL KILLICK ON WEDNESDAY, 25.03.15

1. We were delighted that Highland Council are promoting and supporting the Gaelic language through the delivery of Gaelic workshops in Scottish Primary Schools.

2. The children of Ardross Primary took part in a variety of indoor activities in the drama Gaelic workshop for primary age, where they had the opportunity to practice informally their linguistic skills.

3. It was an amazing afternoon of active learning. Ariel organised a wide programme of activities & strategies for discussions, using her unique artistic skills to help children to focus and memorise some vital words.

4. I think, with all her efforts, Ariel will increase the number of children who would be interested in developing their Gaelic language skills.

5. We would like to thank Highland Council for engaging Ardross Primary School in a Gaelic language development activity. Also, a personal thank you to Ariel for making this day interesting, educational, full of joy and fun!

ARDROSS PRIMARY SCHOOL

34

35

from:

to: "ariel

date: Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 9:41 AM

subject: FW: Gaelic Workshop

mailed- ….gov.uk by: See email below with feedback from Viewlands Primary School!

From: Sent: 09 March 2016 12:12 To: Subject: Gaelic Workshop

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!

One of the best, most engaging workshops I have had yet! The children absolutely loved it! I would highly recommend this to anyone!

Thanks again for organising.

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54