Assisted Labour Mobility Policy in Scotland 1973-19741
Abstract
Assisted Labour Mobility Policy in Scotland 1973-19741 SAGE Publications, Inc.02/1976DOI: 10.1080/00420987620080111 Phillip B.Beaumont Department of Social and Economic Research at the University of Glasgow [Received March 1975] Introduction Policies of assisted labour mobility have traditionally caused concern to the authorities and people of depressed areas. This is because out-migration in such areas is never seen as a potential solution to the problem of unemployment, but rather has always been interpreted as a symptom of underlying imbalance in the regional economy. However much economic theory supports the aim of maximising 'people prosperity', it is the existence of such political constraints that operates to make 'place prosperity' at least deserving of equal consideration. According to Brown: '... the most important consideration of all is the determination of most communities to preserve themselves and to secure a share of the national growth. No strategy that ignored this, at any rate in the case of the major socially and politically self-conscious communities is of much practical interest' (Brown, 1969, 787). In the United States, for example, the major explanation for the limited role of relocation of worker policies has been the opposition of depressed area communities. The result of such pressure is