Simita Kumar, the Minister for Equalities and International Development, has hailed the power of football to break down cultural barriers in Scottish society and unite communities amid a rise in “harmful” right wing misinformation about immigration.
Kumar was handed responsibility for supporting refugees, asylum seekers and people from displaced backgrounds by First Minister John Swinney in May after being elected to represent the Edinburgh South Western constituency at Holyrood.
The Fiji-born MSP was horrified at the racist assaults which were committed in Glasgow city centre last month during a far right march that was staged in the wake of a knife attack in Belfast.
Police Scotland assistant chief constable Alan Waddell confirmed that several members of the public had been attacked “because of the colour of their skin” and Swinney condemned the disorder as “unacceptable”.
Kumar attended the Refugee World Cup Scotland – a tournament that involved over 250 people from more than 50 different countries - at the Toryglen Regional Football Centre on the South Side in the wake of the unrest.
She was impressed at the way the event brought players from different backgrounds together and stressed that football has an important role to play in integrating refugees and asylum seekers into Scottish society.
“When you are on the football pitch, it doesn't matter what language you speak or what your ethnicity or background is,” she said. “The only language is football. That's the thing that unites us.
“So I think football is hugely important. It's not just about football. I think it is the spirit which it generates is what is important. All sports provide a time and a space for people to come together.
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“When you are part of a team, when you're playing football or any other sport, it unites us. We're trying to win, we've got that goal in mind. But it is important to bring people together.
“Events like the Refugee World Cup are needed to ensure that we bring people of all nationalities together to do something that we all love and believe in, which is to play football.”
Kumar added, “Scotland has always been an inclusive and welcoming society. What we are seeing right now is a very small minority who are absolutely inciting violence. The rhetoric around some of the political discourse we've had is unhelpful and even harmful.
“Actually, immigration is a good thing for Scotland and for our society. We have an ageing working population, for example. There are lots of things that we need to start thinking seriously about.
“Of course, immigration is a reserved matter. But what we are doing in Scotland is making sure that all of our communities are inclusive, that we get on with our neighbours.
“The harmful rhetoric around immigration does not reflect the wider society or the wider Scotland that I know and have loved and believed in.
“I am an immigrant myself and what I have felt from my communities is a sense of love and respect and community. We need to do everything we can to preserve that. So football and events like the Refugee World Cup are very important.
“Afghan United play every week. If they playing against a team from, say, Easterhouse, that can be a powerful thing. You can bring two cultures together and people can see that they are no different to them, that they love football. It can help people to mix and break down barriers. That is truly important.”
Kumar was also heartened when she saw Scotland fans mix freely with supporters of other nations during the World Cup in the United States last month without any trouble breaking out.
“Football fever definitely hit its peak in Scotland during the World Cup,” she said. “The loss to Morocco was obviously a very difficult one.
“But towards the end of the game the Moroccan fans and the Tartan Army came together and celebrated something they both love, football. We've seen that across other nations as well. I think it was further evidence that sport has the ability to unite different cultures and nationalities.”
