THE Prime Minister may have left no room for doubt that one of her priorities for Brexit is controlling the number of migrants coming into the UK, but an anti-immigration policy could never work for Scotland. We are a small country with an ageing population - we need migrants.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the university sector. Scotland needs to find and retain the best global talent and universities can help do that by recruiting students from around the world. Not only do the students contribute to our economic prosperity while they are here, they can go on helping once they graduate either by working in Scotland or in another country where they can foster international links that are good for our economy.
One small sign that the UK Government may recognise the truth of this is that it has introduced a pilot scheme that would allow overseas students to remain after they graduate (disappointingly Scotland was not included). However, the UK Government has also refused to exclude foreign students from immigration figures, thereby creating the impression that it sees students as just another part of the migration numbers that it wants to control.
For the sake of the economy and the university sector, exactly the opposite should be the case. Speaking about the possible effects on universities, the principal of the University of the West of Scotland, Craig Mahoney, says the UK Government’s approach could damage the ability of British universities to attract foreign students. But he also says that the wider risk is that the UK as a whole will lose out when foreign students start to disappear in large numbers.
The only practical solution – and there is still time for the UK Government to consider this – is a separate immigration policy for Scotland so it can set its own priorities on foreign students that recognise our particular circumstances. The UK Government may have made its priorities clear for Brexit, but Scotland’s economic interests must not be sacrificed to a ideology of anti-immigration.
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