This week, columnist Ruth Wishart considers the contrasts in attitudes to immigration – and looks at the related topic of depopulation in Argyll and Bute.

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Immigration means different things to different people.

To the appalling current tenant of the White House it’s a red meat issue to throw out to his red-necked support, wilfully ignorant of the fact that the United States was built on inward migration – including his own family.

The only non immigrants in America are the native population, one of whose chiefs, in a move beyond irony, was threatened with deportation last week.

To some of those who live in the southernmost counties of England it’s a matter of concern about pressure on schools and hospitals and housing.

And some of the people in the north east of England have a kneejerk reaction to it; many of them voted for Brexit on the back of it, despite the fact that their area had very little experience of immigration.

For other parts of England, especially those growing fruit and vegetables, it’s an essential part of keeping their show on the road. Seasonal workers from abroad are a crucial component.

Here in Scotland the government has made it quite clear that in a country with a need for skilled labour which cannot be met by the indigenous population, immigration is vital.

Except, of course, that it’s reserved to Westminster so that they can do nothing much to encourage it.

In the early years of Holyrood, a policy was devised to allow bright students from other countries to have a visa which allowed them to stay on after graduation and put something back into our economy. And perhaps build a new life here. That was summarily scrapped by London five years ago.

And, just like the farmers down south, we also have urgent need of a seasonal work force.

Suggest, as many people are wont to do, that this merely frees up jobs for the locals and you will be met with hollow laughter; there is apparently no appetite among local people to spend the day picking crops and packing them for relatively small financial reward.

Meanwhile, anyone who tours Scotland will have been familiar with the friendly, competent workforce, chiefly from Poland, who have been such an integral part of the service industry.

Many of these young people have gone home, partly because of their uncertainty as to their future status, partly because a diving pound has made us a much less attractive proposition in economic terms. Both reasons, of course, a direct result of the Brexit vote.

I imagine that’s part of the reason local MP Brendan O’Hara has raised the question of de-population in Argyll and Bute in the Commons.

We need more young families to put down roots here. We need people to fill skills gaps, and we need international students, whose numbers have been dropping UK wide, because many young people no long feel there is likely to be a welcoming environment compared with destinations like Australia.

The TV programme Who Do You Think You Are?, regularly uncovers a patchwork quilt of national identities in the ancestry of celebrities. In fact that is the case for all of us in this mongrel nation.

We are the product of generations of inter marriage, migration, and racial mingling. And all the better for it.