THE EU referendum has taken place and the nation has spoken.
Whatever side one was on, we now have to live with the outcome and some of the antagonisms and prejudices that were stirred up in the process.
For example, I wonder how often those who are hostile to immigration ask themselves the fairly basic question: “What would we eat if it wasn’t for immigrants?”.
A quick check on TripAdvisor tells me that 15 of their top 20 restaurants in Aberdeenshire specialise in “foreign” cuisine.
Indian, Mexican, Mediterranean, Thai, Italian, French … they’re all there and we are much the richer for that diversity.
Theoretically, of course, Aberdonians could cook the curries or the mezzes or the linguine. But it wouldn’t be quite the same outcomes, I suspect.
Then there’s the question of who serves us our food.
I make a habit of asking the waiters and waitresses where they come from.
Romania, Bulgaria and Spain seem to be favourite just now – and thank goodness for them.
Polite, helpful young people who do not seem to think that providing good service is beneath their dignity – what is there not to like?
These are the practicalities of immigration and free movement of people within Europe, far more than the negative stereotypes we recently heard so much about.
As you can probably guess, I hope we will continue to welcome such people to our shores and thereby enhance their life opportunities as well as our own social mix.
And remember - the great thing about “trade” of any kind is that it works both ways.
As well as importing chefs and waiters, we should also be exporting them.
The hospitality industry is global and anyone who can acquire the necessary skills has the potential to market them around the world (so long as nobody puts up barriers).
I was involved for a few years with an excellent and humbling project run by Diageo, called “Learning for Life” which I first came across in Venezuela and has since been rolled out in quite a few of the countries where the drinks giant has a presence, including Scotland.
The idea is to take young unemployed people from communities in which the company operates, give them high quality training in the hospitality industry and help them to find initial jobs as the starting point for their careers.
Many of the participants have had difficult backgrounds but the success rate is strikingly high.
We need to get away from the idea of “service” jobs being at the low end of the market.
The hospitality industry is one of the world’s biggest growth sectors.
Skills acquired here can pretty much ensure life-long employment opportunities both at home and abroad.
That’s the way we should sell it to our own young people.
Instead of putting up barriers, let’s aim for more Scottish chefs in Paris, Scottish waiters in Bucharest and Scottish bar-tenders in New York.
To punch our weight in that global village, we first need to get attitudes right at home.