The leader of Aberdeen’s council has hailed a sharp rise in migration to the area, but predicted the city would keep growing and become “crowded”.
Barney Crockett said large-scale immigration had been “critical” to the success of the booming local economy, although he admitted it had also created “challenges”.
The Labour city councillor was speaking after an Oxford University report showed yesterday that the Granite City had witnessed a 167% increase in immigration between 2001 and 2011.
The rise was the biggest in Scotland, and the city also had the highest number of migrants in terms of population share, at 16%, based on an analysis of 2011 census figures.
The influx has had an impact on local public services, with NHS Grampian revealing last night that there had been a seven-fold increase in the use of interpreters in the last nine years.
Mr Crockett said: “They are critical to the success of the local economy, but it brings challenges as well.
“If you see the commitment that businesses are making to the area, that’s what underpins it.
“Aberdeen is getting more crowded and that trend is going to continue. There are a lot of demands for our housing.
“Almost all, if not all, of Aberdeen’s primary schools have more people learning English.
“It does give challenges to teachers but there are up sides – our unemployment rate is around 2%.
“We wouldn’t have dreamed of that a few years ago.”
Mr Crockett said action was needed from the Scottish Government to lift the local authority off the foot of the council funding table, and to help improve housing supply and transport infrastructure. “I think Aberdeen people should be very proud of that.
“Although we’ve got problems, compared to what the expectations would be, it’s absolutely minimal,” he said.
A spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said: “The majority of services for migrant workers and their families are the same as for residents.
“In general terms, the rise has meant an increase in providing translation and interpretation facilities – for example, in Grampian we have access to 240 face-to-face interpreters in 2013, whereas this was 35 in 2004.”