Nicola Sturgeon's weekly column is in the Evening Times every Tuesday.
Last week National Records of Scotland released the latest population statistics. They show that Scotland’s population is now at a record high of 5.44 million people.
The main driver for this growth is inward migration. In fact over the next 25 years, all of our projected population growth will be because of migration.
There is an important message here. While immigration can be a controversial subject, the fact is that Scotland needs to attract people to live here - for the sake of our own prosperity.
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If we want to sustain public services and continue to build a vibrant successful economy, we need to grow our working age population, and that means encouraging people to come to Scotland to live and work. If we don’t, there is a real risk of our population going into decline - and that means fewer people doing jobs that need done, and fewer people paying taxes.
However, immigration powers are not in the hands of the Scottish Parliament; instead they remain reserved to Westminster. And instead of recognising this major demographic challenge by developing policies to help encourage migration to Scotland, the UK Government is trying to severely restrict migration, not least by ending freedom of movement as part of Brexit.
This is just one of many examples of a broken Westminster system that neither respects nor serves the interests of Scotland.
And it demonstrates - as so much of the Brexit mess does - that Scotland needs to have more control over our own future.
Since the vote to leave the EU, the agreed constitutional principles which have underpinned devolution have been cast aside by the UK Government. Scottish Parliament votes have been ignored and vital powers have effectively been taken way from us without our consent,
In place of an equal partnership, there is a democratic deficit. The status quo is broken.
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Twenty years on from devolution, instead of the Scottish Parliament having more influence on the decisions which shape our country, there is the risk it will have less.
Devolution was delivered by consensus, with the shared belief of putting the people of Scotland first - and if we want to protect Scotland’s future we must seek to build that consensus once again.
To read the rest of Nicola Sturgeon's column, visit The Evening Times
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