New visa laws may “tear families apart” in the Western Isles, Alasdair Allan MSP says.
Earlier this month, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced major overhauls to the UK’s visa requirements.
The minimum income requirement for a spousal and family visas will be more than doubled, going from from £18,600 to £38,700.
This means that people in the UK with an income less than of £38,000 will be unable to bring foreign family members over to live with them.
Now, Western Isles MSP Alasdair Allan has warned Parliament that this move would threaten the “demography, economy, and social fabric of the Western Isles”.
Many family visa holders in the Western Isles have contacted him in fear for their future on the islands.
One of them is Tessa Gehringer Monk, a local ceramics artist who moved to the Western Isles from America in 2018.
‘I love living in the Western Isles’
She says that the new rules will hit people in the Western Isles especially hard.
“Often on the islands it’s necessary to take up multiple part-time or seasonal positions to make ends meet,” she says.
“We work very hard and we will not be able to make £38,700 this year, especially with so little notice.”
“I love living in the Western Isles,” says Mrs Monk. “I have a business here, I love the local community, I’m a Gaelic speaker. My goal for the coming year is to work locally in the education sector.”
“I want so badly to be able to stay here,” she says. “But this measure may force me to move back to America.
“I feel like my life has completely gone off track with this announcement.”
‘Destroying our communities’
Alasdair Allan MSP echoed her concerns..
The current government is “immigration-obsessed”, he says. He argues that they are “intent on expelling the exact sort of people we need in Scotland, and destroying our communities in the process”.
“This move threatens to tear families apart.”
It “flies in the face of the values of compassion and family unity,” he says, and “poses wider threats to the demography, economy, and social fabric of the Western Isles.”
Tom Pursglove MP, Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery, says details of the new visa laws will be announced in January.
The UK government has been contacted for comment.
More local reporting from the Western Isles:
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