Meeting of the Parliament 12 June 2025
I am pleased to contribute to the debate, not only to support the motion but to speak to a principle that must guide us in everything that we do: every person who chooses to make Scotland their home brings with them value, dignity and the potential to contribute meaningfully to our shared future.
I also want to use my time to challenge the toxic narratives that continue to define UK immigration policy. We must be absolutely clear that immigration is a societal good and not a problem to be managed. We should celebrate it. Indeed, Scotland’s communities, culture, economies and public services are strengthened every day by people who have come here from around the globe. They bring with them skills, ideas, cultures, care and resilience. They are nurses, teachers, farmers, carers and artists. They are our friends and neighbours. They enrich our society in every possible way. They are part of us. They are us.
However, again and again, we are asked to accept the cruel and divisive narratives that are pushed by Westminster. Those narratives cast human beings as threats, speak of illegal migrants as if legality ever equated to morality and promote a so-called hostile environment—words that are designed not just to exclude but to dehumanise.
We must ask ourselves why people migrate. Why are so many forced to uproot their lives, families and futures? Too often, migration is spoken of in isolation, as if it happens in a vacuum, but it is often a direct consequence of histories of empire, colonial extraction and economic injustice. For centuries, the British empire profited from the exploitation of people and land around the globe, from Africa to south Asia to the Caribbean. Borders were drawn, communities were displaced and resources were looted. Those legacies are still with us. It is both deeply unjust and bitterly ironic that the very states that built their wealth on global movement and domination now criminalise those who move in search of safety and dignity. Many migrants are fleeing the instability, poverty and conflict that imperial powers, including the UK, played a key role in creating.
Increasingly, climate change, too, drives displacement. We must remember that those least responsible for the climate change crisis are most affected by it.
When we speak of immigration policy, we must also speak of responsibility—not just legal but moral and historical. The UK Government’s hostile environment approach is rooted in denial of our history and of the UK’s role in creating the conditions that force people to move now.
The immigration white paper continues the legacy of harm. It ignores Scotland’s specific demographic and economic needs, disregards proposals from our Government and deepens the dehumanisation of people who deserve compassion, not condemnation.
The Scottish Greens have long advocated for a migration system that is rooted in fairness, human rights and compassion and that recognises people not as economic units but as full members of society. Many of the most harmful migration policies—the raids, detention centres and deportations—are grounded in racist assumptions that must be challenged and dismantled.
We urgently need a migration policy that is tailored to Scotland’s realities and that puts dignity and human rights first. We need a youth mobility scheme that rebuilds what was lost after Brexit and restores the freedom of movement that allowed young people to learn, grow and connect across borders.
Crucially, we must change the way in which we talk about migration. We must reject the language of scarcity and suspicion. We must insist that our communities are richer—culturally, economically and spiritually—because of the people who have chosen to come here.
Scotland has always been a nation of migration, both outward and inward. Our future depends on our ability to embrace that identity with open arms, to stand against the xenophobia that is peddled by the right wing and to say clearly, loudly and proudly that everyone who makes Scotland their home is welcome and that they belong here.
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