Scotland can’t afford the UK government’s ideological immigration policy

The UK government under Keir Starmer has announced sweeping changes to immigration rules that will damage Scotland.

There is a level of immigration that is functional, supportive and necessary for any country. Whereas it is true that not all immigration is positive, it is also equally true that not all immigration is negative. Scotland has specific skilled and unskilled migrant worker needs, so should be able to set its own rules in line with the nation's wellbeing.

But under devolution, Scotland has only limited powers. Without independence, Scotland’s migration rules will continue to be controlled by the government of a neighbouring country - which is in the grip of ideological warfare and not at all interested in the damage the wrong immigration policy for Scotland is doing to our economy and our communities.

The Labour Government in Westminster didn’t even bother to do any research or impact assessments as to what the effect of the policies might mean for Scotland’s economy and wellbeing. Of course they didn't!

Scotland doesn’t matter to Westminster. What matters to them is placating Reform, who are doubling down on a new scapegoat because Brexit turned out to be such a disaster and they can’t blame the EU anymore.

Nigel Farage’s party used to claim that being in the EU was damaging England. Now they say it is immigrants that are the problem - ignoring the fact that Brexit has increased immigration. While there is now a net negative flow of EU citizens from the UK - more leave than arrive each year - there is increased immigration from the rest of the world - something that Remainers predicted.

EU-related freedom of movement for employment allowed seasonal workers to come over to Scotland and return home in the winter. Scotland really needed that flexibility. It is much harder to create infrastructure for year-round migrants. Brexit has also made it harder to deal fairly with asylum seekers.

But instead of facing up to the fact that Brexit is the problem, Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage are competing to demonise migrants.

Here are three reasons the UK’s Reform-led policies are bad news for Scotland

1 - The UK government is introducing extra costs, delays and red tape for bringing in skilled workers

Starmer plans to slash the number of skilled workers that are allowed into the UK and to make the process more expensive and time-consuming. Currently about 90,000 skilled workers are issued for the whole UK every year - the new plans say it will be almost halved. That is potentially devastating for post-Brexit businesses who need these staff. There will also be many more hoops to jump through. Innovative Scottish businesses don’t need extra red tape, cost and hassle when they are already being hit with so much of that as it is.

Under the new rules, the total cost of sponsoring a skilled worker with a partner and two children will rise to £67,000, if the employer bears the full cost.
Scotland has lower salaries on average than the south of England - so the cost of bringing in that key team member with unusual skills will just become unaffordable for many.

How will that help Scotland’s economy? The answer is - it won’t.

Financial Times Associate Editor Stephen Bush wrote this week in an article entitled Migration cuts are a luxury the UK can’t afford: “Reducing freedom of movement — of people, goods, capital or services — comes at the cost of growth. It always has. Governments shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Curbs on the free movement of people, whether in 1905, 1966 or 2019 have inevitably had a cost for the country.

“But the UK of 2025, with its older population, its far bigger state, and its greater expectations about the standard and quality of public services, is even more sensitive to hits to growth than the UK of 1905…Starmer’s party has a policy position that is, to put it mildly, unusual. Labour claims that the Conservatives created a state that was too small — it didn’t build enough, provide enough GPs, hire enough schoolteachers or sort the overly high cost of living. It also claims that fixing these problems can be done with fewer people than the Conservatives managed.”

2 - The UK government is planning to tax international students’ fees

Scotland’s world-class universities have a great reputation abroad and they can attract students from many countries. They are a magnet for bright students and staff and contribute substantially to Scotland’s economy. The fees paid by international students are part of the economic model of Scotland’s universities.

Now the UK government is planning to take a cut of international fee money, a six per cent tax. That can’t be absorbed by the universities, so it will force them to put up fees and become less competitive.

Claire McPherson, Director of Universities Scotland, has asked that this levy should not be applied in Scotland (but that plea is unlikely to be heeded).

She said: "The financial challenges facing Scotland’s universities are well known. International tuition fees are already subsidising the higher education of Scotland’s home students and our research output. A levy on this much-needed income would be unwelcome given the financial pressures already facing the sector.”

Scotland has fee-free higher education. That is the norm across Europe. It was England that left that system. Most Scots value the fairness of paying for degree education through general taxation, instead of the US-style approach, with rich families paying the fee upfront while ordinary students enter a lifetime of debt servitude.

But Unionist politicians always demand that Scotland should copy England and they would like to see Scotland forced to bring in similar fees. It looks like the Labour government’s latest move will please them by adding to the financial pressure facing Scotland’s university sector.

3 - The UK government is ending the care workers’ visa immediately - with nothing to replace it

The UK has a problem with staffing care homes as the population ages. This is even more true for Scotland than England because of the demographics.

Scotland has an average age of 42. Scotland’s birth rate in 2023 was just over eight per thousand people, the lowest ever recorded, whereas in England, it was nearly 11 per thousand. (The global average is 17).

For social care to compete with other sectors and attract staff, care workers would have to be paid much more than retail and hospitality work. Who is going to pay for that? Families and local authorities can’t afford higher fees.

The visa block comes on top of the increase in National Insurance contributions that care homes are already struggling to absorb. Scottish Care CEO Dr Donald Macaskill said the UK government’s “reckless” proposals don’t reflect Scotland’s demographic reality and undermine the values of the care sector:

“The potential ending of the social care visa route would not only be irresponsible, but it would also be reckless. It would put lives, services, and whole communities at risk.

“Scotland needs a workforce immigration policy that is fair, humane, and rooted in the needs of our population, not driven by political headlines or populist sentiment. Anything less fails the people of Scotland.

“Scottish Care urges the UK government to urgently reconsider these proposals and engage with Scotland’s social care sector to create a sustainable, rights-based immigration system that truly supports those who care for others.”

Conclusion

Scotland’s migrant worker needs differs from England in ways that make one-size-fits-all policies damaging to Scotland - specifically:

Higher costs to bring in skilled workers won’t help Scottish business. These policies are set in response to English politics not Scottish business needs.
Fee-free higher education is important to Scots - the UK government’s new levy is effectively attacking that.
Scotland has an older population - realistically, we can’t staff the care sector without migrants. That’s because of the decades-long brain drain caused by Westminster's London centric policies which focussed on making London the sole power centre of the UK at the expense of not only nations like Scotland but even the English regions.

But the UK government is not interested in what Scotland needs. They haven’t even researched what the effect of their policies will be here. Scotland would not have to get dragged into this unappealing fight if it were independent.

An independent Scotland would set its own visa rules, set with the particular needs of Scotland’s economy and Scotland’s wellbeing in mind.