Immigrants think Scotland is more welcoming than the rest of the UK, according to new research.
Academics at Aberdeen University investigated Buddhist perceptions of Scotland, but believe their views can be applied to the wider immigrant community.
There were about 6,800 Buddhists in Scotland at the 2001 census, fewer than 1% of the population but the biggest single group after the various Christian and Islamic denominations.
Anthropologist William Tuladhar-Douglas, a lecturer in the anthropology of environment and religions at Aberdeen, hopes his research will add a new dimension to the debate on immigration.
He said: “Immigration has become a defining issue in this election and I feel that it is important to ask if Scottish voters hold a different view of immigration than voters elsewhere in the UK.
“Although all those I have interviewed so far are legitimate immigrants with the right to live and work in the UK, they nonetheless feel threatened by both anti-immigrant rhetoric and raids by immigration officials removing failed asylum seekers or illegal workers.
“It appears immigrants from Buddhist societies to Scotland see Scotland as a welcoming landscape.”
“That experience arises, at least in part, because of the contrast with the policies and practices of the UK government.”
His research was supported by a Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities small research grant funded by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research at Aberdeen University and the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Trust at the University of Toronto.
He will present his findings at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Conference: Buddhism and Diaspora, at Toronto University at Scarborough in Canada on May 15.
Source : http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk
