Many a chorus celebrates the equality of migrants in Scotland. ‘We’re all Scotland’s story and we’re all worth the same’, sang the Proclaimers, before Dick Gaughan turned the folk song Erin go Bragh into a defiant come-all-ye: ‘Sae come aa ye young people, whairever ye’re from, A don’t give a damn tae whit place ye belang’. Alas, while most patriots will affirm that we’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns, Scotland’s egalitarian spirit has not been over-quick to descend from inspiring culture to securing migrant justice on the ground.

That is partly because the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government lack power to make and implement migration policy. The SNP, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrats want more migration, while the Conservatives and Reform are hostile, but whatever their stances, migration, asylum, and employment policy are all reserved to Westminster. Some will therefore argue that reserved issues should not be the focus of our national elections. But there are many reasons why migrant rights and migrant justice belong in Scotland’s election debate.

Why migration matters

Firstly, polls find migration to be among voters’ top five issues in the 2026 election. It follows that party positions on immigration are high on the news. Some pro-migrant politicians duck or derail the debate, calling migration a divisive and inflammatory issue. But disparaging voters’ concerns, however misdirected they may be, is also inflammatory. In recent months, through protest and counter-protest, Scottish politics has been shaken by the friction between anti-migrant mobilisations and antifascist activists.

If Scotland does not debate migration at election time, when is the right time to argue about it? When else will pro-independence, pro-migration parties develop political justifications for allowing our parliament to take a different path from Westminster? It is perfectly reasonable for migration to be debated, not suppressed.

There is a second reason why migrant conditions and experiences matter to these Holyrood debates. Despite key powers being reserved to Westminster, Scottish authorities have some powers to improve the security and rights of migrant workers and communities. Where they use these powers, the results are mixed. There have been some improvements in housing rights for seasonal migrants, but support for workers displaced by their employers is poor and patchy. 

To leave migration matters for Westminster elections is a way of muting the people most affected by them

Meanwhile, there is less campaigning focus on practical policy interventions than the migrant-friendly mood music of the nation might suggest. A recent report on grassroots organising in Scotland found ‘a notable gap for organisations explicitly supporting anti-racist, migrant justice’. There are many heartening exceptions, of which more below, but the overall result has been a paucity of pressure pushing the Scottish parliament and government to advance migrant justice.

This points to a third reason why migration matters in the 2026 election. Like other Scottish voters, many migrants will base their votes on parties’ positions on immigration and the economic rights of migrants. Unlike for most Scottish voters, however, Holyrood is the only parliamentary election in which many migrants can vote. In contrast with Westminster elections, everyone aged 16 or over and lawfully resident in Scotland is enfranchised in Holyrood elections, including refugees, migrants, and temporary residents.

It is a constitutional irony that migrants with insecure status have the right to vote for a parliament that cannot improve their status as migrants, but are denied a vote for one that can. To leave migration matters for the Westminster elections is a way of muting the people most affected by them.

Unseen labour injustices

Earlier in 2026, around twenty food couriers, mostly migrants, joined a workshop organised by the Workers’ Observatory, which facilitates worker inquiry and education in the gig economy. The discussion about voting intentions revealed a shift of support from Labour to the SNP as a result of the UK Government’s migration policies and threat to extend leave-to-remain requirements from five to ten years. For food couriers in particular, their self-employed status prevents them from accessing the rights of most other workers, from sick pay and paternity pay to minimum wages. Starmer’s broken promise to review worker classifications weighs on many minds. His threat to ‘take action’ against asylum seekers working on Deliveroo was chilling.

One councillor at the Workers’ Observatory workshop was frank that migrant gig workers, as younger people from ethnic minorities, are barely on politicians’ radars. Along with the dearth of grassroots organising, this helps explain why migrant rights have generally been overlooked in this Scottish election, despite parties sparring about the benefits of immigration for Scotland’s economy.

As younger people from ethnic minorities, migrant gig workers are barely on politicians’ radars

If this seems downbeat, however, there are new initiatives to build migrant workers’ power.  In 2025, a project called Migrant Justice Edinburgh (MJE) began to foster political spaces for migrant communities, and is set to increase its activity in the coming years. The project is a collaboration between the Workers’ Observatory, a migrant advice centre called the Citizens’ Rights Project, and the Empowering Multicultural Communities Alliance (EMCA) which is building cross-cultural networks in the city. MJE aims to facilitate ‘grassroots collaboration in neighbourhoods, leveraging what unites the myriad of communities that shape Edinburgh’. It’s one of many initiatives that will promote migrant justice throughout the next parliamentary session.

Hope through electoral organising

There are grounds for hope that the next parliament will take migrant issues forward. When I spoke recently with Richard Leonard, the last socialist leader of Scottish Labour, he talked about his recent work with the Workers’ Support Centre to bring migrant justice up the parliament’s and government’s agenda. He praised the Centre, but paid tribute to the SNP government for providing resources to support its work.

In turn, the Centre’s director Caroline Robinson has recognised the work by Richard and other politicians to secure new commitments on housing standards for seasonal farm workers. The devolved remit of housing, employability, local government and other areas allows many possibilities for an agenda around migrant justice. 

There are also signs that the next set of Scottish parliamentarians might push at the limits of devolution to advance new positions on migrant work. Kate Campbell, an SNP candidate with a good prospect of election, dedicated considerable effort as a councillor – and convenor of the City of Edinburgh Gig Work Taskforce – to surfacing the experiences of migrant gig workers. She wrote recently about making gig work a priority in the next parliament, and exploring what the government could do despite the lack of formal employment or migrant powers.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens gave a commitment in their manifesto to improving mostly-migrant gig work. There is good reason, too, to think the new Government – if, as seems likely, it is SNP with Green support – will honour party commitments to expand care workers’ sectoral bargaining rights. 

Such measures will hardly bring major changes to the conditions and power of migrant workers. There are always limits to the value and potential of electorally focused organising, whether or not the parliament in question lacks critical levers of power. But there is plenty of potential to push migrant rights up the programme of Scottish politics, lever Scotland out of the stew of anti-migrant sentiment, and bring that lofty egalitarian spirit down from its hallowed heichts.