Stop Blaming Refugees – The Real Crisis is Political Failure

Once again, performative panic is being whipped up – this time in the Daily Record (Sept 9, 2025) – about the supposed threat of “thousands of refugees” coming to Scotland as hotels are emptied. A picture of brown men is used to drive the message home.

A similar questionable narrative about newly granted refugees (of colour) "damaging social cohesion" was pushed by The Guardian earlier this year, in April 2025.

But where was this moral panic when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees actually did arrive? I remember only images that would stir up humanity and empathy. Ukrainian refugees were loudly welcomed, quietly absorbed, and given tenancies in social housing and hosted accommodation from day one. Rightly so.

That reality—met with celebration, not fear—partly explains why less houses are now available to those who find themselves in housing need. But the racialised double standards are sickening.

The framing suggests refugees of colour are the problem, rather than the deliberate political choices that manufacture homelessness. 

Even violence and right wing protests outside hotels are mentioned as if refugees “caused” the unrest, when in fact the blame lies entirely with those who incite and organise racist mobs. This is how false narratives are laundered, fuelling hostility, fear, and division.

All of this is rearranging the deckchairs. The real problem is not immigrants of any colour. The real problem is the stoking up of racism to deflect from decades of political failure and short-termism. We have seen this movie played out before and the script is getting tired.

For 25 years, the UK Government has banned people seeking asylum from working, losing this country billions in taxes in the process. For decades more, this country has handed over billions to outsourcing giants to dump people into hostels and hotels instead of actually investing in building homes that would provide both housing and jobs. 

Glasgow alone spent £16.5 million in just three months putting people into hotels and B&Bs. Imagine if that money had gone into bricks and mortar. Would we need temporary accommodation?

The result is predictable: people left homeless. And without a home, you cannot begin to think about the future, or contribute as a useful tax-paying member of society.

The truth is simple. If the UK and Scottish Governments had invested in building decent social housing for all—including refugees—there would be more homes for everyone. Invest in social capital, and councils would not be forced to rely on temporary accommodation.

But politicians seem to find short-termism easier, and scapegoating immigrants cheaper. Do they not think about the implications of their words? People are poorer, the economy is getting worse, so just blame brown immigrants. Don't talk up the benefits of immigration, just punch down, won't you? 

This country absorbed far more Ukrainians without complaint. Stop inventing imaginary horror stories about refugees of colour. The double standards and racist scapegoating, however politely dressed up, inflict real harm on our society.

There is no evidence of an “exodus. Since November 2023, Glasgow has declared a housing emergency. This means that anyone, including refugees, arriving from outside Glasgow will find themselves with no guarantee of housing, because the system is under extreme pressure because of political failure. Scottish local authorities also have no obligation to provide permanent housing to those who are deemed to have made themselves intentionally homeless.

The crisis is not refugees, but political failure, and the deliberate fuelling of racism to divert from that failure. If this kind of media coverage goes on unchecked, it will most certainly usher in the far right. That is why we must all challenge politicians and the press when they frame refugees negatively and spread false narratives.