“I HAD no forms to fill in,” says Tania Diaz.
“Only the application form to work in the hotel.”
Like many of her colleagues at the Crieff Hydro, the 27-year-old from northern Spain came to live and work in Scotland attracted by the scenery, notions of its history, people and an opportunity to learn English.
Recruited as a waitress, Tania has powered her way through the kitchens at one of the country’s best-known hotels.
She had been promoted to pastry chef whilst undertaking a distance learning psychology course from a university in her native country.
Typical of thousands of migrant workers who come to Scotland and form the backbone of the hospitality sector, her path from Gijon to Perthshire was seamless. “It was as easy for me here as it would have been back home,” she adds.
But with freedom of movement a potential casualty of Brexit negotiations, do Tania and her colleagues have any sense of the walls closing in?
“We don’t believe Brexit and having to leave the UK is going to happen,” she said. “I don’t know how long I’m going to be here or where I want to settle and can always travel to other countries.
“We can still do that. I work with people from France, from Portugal, Spain, Germany, Romania and it isn’t something we talk much about.
“When we do it’s that we believe it won’t make much difference because no-one really believes it will mean we cannot work here any more.
“But it is very, very good that the door should remain open.
“It is a great experience to come to this country and also great for the country that we can come here.
“We don’t have to feel like this.
“In Spain we have a similar problem.
“People say that we have too many immigrants, that it is bad for employment, that it is not good for the economy.
“But it would be a really really bad step for the door to close.
“That is a step back to the past and not the future.
“If the UK does this then others might follow and want to do this.
“Europe is not perfect but it has been really good for the economy.”
Before coming to Scotland Tania had travelled around her native Spain and spent some time in Romania.
She had also worked in the hospitality sector in Spain, an experience she described as “different” to her role at the Hydro. A holiday extended to weeks to months and she has been here for a year now.
But in a fluid and fast-moving political environment, would she recommend the Scottish experience to friends back home in Asturias?
“Yes, definitely,” she said.
“Even if things do change it may just be a little bit more difficult to come here, like it is to visit and work in the United States and you need to be able to show you have work ready.,”
“But I have just loved it here.
“It reminds me a little of home, the people have been very nice and I love the accent.
“I want to have the accent.”
Crieff Hydro boss Stephen Leckie, who is also chairman of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, previously told how the hotel had been hit by a fall in conference bookings by the North Sea oil and gas industry while the weak pound had encouraged an influx of overseas visitors.
But the rising cost of food and drink supplies had been diluting the increased tourist revenue..
He previously told how Brexit had created nervousness for his continental European employees who were not sure what would happen in the future.
“This needs to be urgently addressed by the Government,” he said.
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