With the advent of a Scottish Parliament and a Minister and Parliamentary Committee for Rural Affairs, there is now a broad consensus that policies are needed to generate "quality jobs" for young people in rural Scotland. This agenda is politically appealing, since it addresses various rural problems, including retention of young people in rural areas and the viability of rural communities. However, proposed policies to promote "quality jobs" have several difficulties. Such proposals conflate separate issues into a single agenda, identifying young people's problems with those of rural communities and ignoring the complexities and intractability of the problems they claim to address. Young people may be better served by provision of educational and employment opportunities in urban areas, while policies to improve the economic and social life of rural areas might be better directed at attracting newcomers than at trying to halt youth outmigration. Proposals to promote quality jobs also disregard the diversity of rural communities and rural youth, do not fully consider the costs of redistributing resources and services to rural areas, and tend to misconceive issues of whether rural youth have a "real choice" about staying or leaving home. Different policy principles are explored that relate to the needs of youth; rural-urban equity; or minimum standards for access to education, employment, and services. Policymakers' attention should shift from migration issues to provision of training and employment opportunities that enhance minimum standards of living. (Contains 25 references.) (SV)