Edinburgh’s diversity is one of the city’s great strengths, adding to the cosmopolitan nature of the capital.
Many who have made Edinburgh their home have contributed hugely to the city’s story.
Edinburgh Council has said it is very aware of its role in fostering trust, inclusion and a shared sense of belonging for all who live here and is working closely with major organisations across the city, including the NHS, police, universities and colleges to develop anew campaign, ‘Edinburgh is Our Home’.
To mark the launch of Edinburgh is Our Home, The Edinburgh Reporter has spoken to people who have come from elsewhere but who now call Edinburgh home – and who are making a welcome and positive difference to our city.
This article features excerpts from the first in a series of interviews which we will share on our podcast channel, The Edinburgh Report, and on the Council’s and our social media channels from 1 June.
Edinburgh by Numbers
According to the latest version of Edinburgh by Numbers “In the ten years to 2024, Edinburgh’s population grew by 9.4% from an estimated 485,270 to an estimated 530,680 people. In the same period Scotland’s population grew by 4%.”
Overseas migration is the “main driver of population change in Edinburgh”.
The net effect of births and deaths on Edinburgh’s population from 2013 to 2023 was 4,485. The net increase in the population simply from counting births and deaths reduced in the 10 years from 1,261 to just 20.
However, the net effect of migration was more than ten times higher at 51,540 and, with out migration, our city’s population would be static – or even in decline.
One of the people who have spoken to The Edinburgh Reporter in this project is Simita Kumar, who was recently elected as MSP for Edinburgh Southwestern. Previously, she was the SNP group leader on Edinburgh Council, but began as a modern apprentice with Glasgow City Council. Later she studied psychology with criminology and worked with NHS Lothian. She had little choice but to move to Scotland with her family. She was a teenager living in Fiji when her parents decided to move to the UK so that her father could work in Glasgow as a chef. He resisted at first but then thought it would be a good way to improve life for his family.
Simita’s two older sisters remained behind to finish school and have since gone to live in Australia and New Zealand. She describes her background as working class, and said they were poor when they came to live in the UK. But she said: “We did not know we were poor because my mum and dad created a home and an environment where it was just so loving. Hand me downs didn’t feel like hand me downs – it was just what you did.”
But she said it was a strange time when the family first moved, but now the whole family speaks every day on WhatsApp and retains a connection. She had always understood her two sisters would come to join the rest of the family, but that is not how it turned out.
She said: “It was exciting in the sense that this was the first time we’d have sat in a plane at the age of…as a teenager. So that bit was exciting. I had seen pictures of what my auntie had sent about what Scotland is like. I’d never experienced snow, for example. I had never experienced anything colder than say 22 degrees. I mean, 22 degrees in Fiji is like cold weather, basically!
“So there was there was that element of excitement, an element of the unknown, which is also scary, but an element of heartbreak as well, because as you said, felt like we were, you know, leaving my wonderful sisters behind.”
It was not all sunshine when they moved, and Simita remembers well that they had their windows broken so many times they had the local tradespeople in Glasgow on speed dial. She says that witnessing overt racism nowadays is “quite challenging”.
Simita has just become a junior minister in John Swinney’s new cabinet while still remaining a councillor.
Edinburgh is Our Home will be widely shared on YouTube on The Edinburgh Report and on our social media channels from 1 June. It will also be promoted on The City of Edinburgh Council social media channels.
