Scotland welcomes migrants but...

At Glasgow University’s Wolfson Medical School 30 doctors –mainly from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sri Lanka – who were being offered the chance to fulfil their medical calling and participate in the New Refugee Doctors Project. By granting membership to the new refugee doctors, the BMA is giving them immediate access to training and journals and support for their statutory clinical exams and assessments. As well as support for sitting stringent English language tests, these men and women will have unpaid work placements in local GP practices and mentoring support from practising doctors in Scotland. This template is that it can be modified and moulded for teachers, engineers, scientists and programmers among future and existing refugees and asylum-seekers.

The arrival of asylum-seekers, many with valuable and highly specialised skills, provides an opportunity for Scotland.  Instead the UK Home Office will decree from 1 April, non-EU nationals who have been resident in the UK for five years or more and who don’t earn at least 35k per annum will be deported.