Scotland has long regarded itself as a sanctuary for refugees in Britain.

People in Scotland who lean left tend to highlight that they didn’t support Brexit and prefer to politically separate themselves from their neighbors to the south.

Glasgow is arguably the most liberal of the Scottish cities, known for being a ‘melting pot’ where those of all backgrounds have thrived.

Recently, the city was labeled the ‘asylum capital’ of the UK due to its high rate of asylum seekers, with 65 per 10,000 residents, a total of 4,023 individuals.

But as the city comes under increasing pressures over housing shortages and strains on homelessness services, attitudes seem to be shifting.

Glasgow City Council signed up for the Home Office’s asylum seeker dispersal program back in 1999, being the first city in Scotland to participate.

However, city officials are now urging that asylum seekers should be accommodated in other cities, suggesting that Glasgow’s role as a dispersal city should be ‘paused’.

Lawmakers argue that the Home Office’s system of handling asylum seekers, along with Scotland’s more welcoming laws on homelessness, has led to a surge of newcomers, lacking adequate financial support from Westminster.

To gauge the changing sentiments of local residents, the Daily Mail visited areas of Glasgow adorned with saltires, believed to be the Scottish version of the Raise The Colours campaign seen in England.

For miles leading up to the high street in Possilpark, which sits in the north of the city, every street is flooded with the St Andrew’s Cross.

Traditionally used as a symbol for Scottish independence, hundreds of flags have been attached to every lamppost coming up to the main road, though hanging rather limp in the rain.

Referred to in short as Possil, it is one of the most deprived areas in the city. 

It is overrun with drugs and crime, and suffers some of the worst rates of poverty.

In 2018, it was ranked the most deprived community in the whole of the UK.

Here, two locals, Helen Penmen, 66, Jacqueline Houston, 60, told the Daily Mail: ‘Where do we start?’

Ms Houston said: ‘I think it is ridiculous because we’re losing out on a lot.

‘My son and my daughter-in-law both work full-time and can’t get a place to live. They can’t get a house so they are sofa surfing.

‘But all around where I am are asylum seekers. There’s two houses with 40 of them in each house. It’s ridiculous.

‘And I’m not a racist, I’ve got black family, I’m no racist at all.

‘But they making me racist, I’m getting annoyed.’

Ms Penman chimed in: ‘I’ve got one (a migrant) up my close, a man, and he’s been at my door at quarter to 1 in the morning.

‘On one day he came to the door again, I was watching coronation street, no top on, no shoes on, just boxers. Asked for a lighter.

‘I’m terrified. I’m a pensioner. I don’t know his history.

‘There’s a lot of things happening here because of asylum seekers.’

She added: ‘Not every asylum seeker is the same.

‘You get some good ones and some not so.

‘You see them ones that are coming on boats without their wives, why are they coming without their family? What are they coming here to do?’

The council has forecasted the costs of housing homeless refugees could soar to £66million next year.

The issue is exacerbated by more ‘generous’ homelessness laws in Scotland which mean that the council is legally obliged to house every homeless person.

This differs to England where they are housed by ‘priority’ needs.

It is understood this ‘loophole’ has seen refugees – who have been granted leave to remain by the Home Office – migrate from other parts of the UK such as London, Birmingham and Manchester, to Glasgow for guaranteed accommodation.

Once asylum seekers are granted leave to remain and become ‘refugees’ they are no longer accommodated in Home Office-funded housing. The move-on period, to leave Home Office accommodation was temporarily extended from 28 to 56 days in December last year.

Scotland’s homelessness laws, paired with the Home Office’s batch processing of asylum seekers, means both are arriving in Scotland’s biggest city in large numbers.

As of August, 44 per cent of all people presenting as homeless in Glasgow came from refugee households, with refugees also accounting for more than half of all temporary accommodation placements, according to the Herald.

While in 2023-24, the council received 694 homeless applications from those who were granted leave to remain in other cities, this soared by 51 per cent to 1050 applications in 2024-25. 

However, while the council urge the Home Office for more funding, they want to make clear the problem is not caused by asylum seekers.

Council leader Susan Aitken said of the housing crisis: ‘I understand that a lot of people are having a really hard time of it. The UK came out of Covid and straight into a cost of living crisis; growth has collapsed and the UK economy is not delivering for too many people.

‘However, we need to be really clear that absolutely none of that has been caused by asylum seekers or refugees. I’m afraid anyone telling you otherwise is not only lying to you – but they are taking advantage of your misfortune to push their own bigoted agenda.’

Asked about Glasgow’s more lenient policies which bring in more asylum seekers, Ms Penman said: ‘They shouldn’t be more lenient. This is our country. Do you know what I mean?

‘It’s putting a strain on housing, benefits, healthcare, it’s all been cut, everything. Big time.

‘It shouldn’t be the case up here either with homelessness.

‘It’s stressing a lot of people out because of it. People are committing suicides over this, benefits being cut, people are getting lot less people to live on.

‘And it’s not just housing, they’re taking over all the shops. They’re coming with nothing, they’re getting free furniture, free food, everything.

‘I say bring your kids in, send the adults back.’   

While one local told me ‘these flags don’t represent me’, and another shouted ‘I didn’t put these things up, they have nothing to do with me’, it cannot be ignored that public opinion is changing.

Reform has worked its way up as the third largest party in Scotland, after the SNP and Labour, as polls show immigration has become a top priority for one in five voters.

Reform councillor Thomas Kerr spoke of the growing issue: ‘It’s not that people aren’t welcoming, it’s not that we’re a city that want to turn our back on people now, it’s just that the city is at breaking point and we can’t continue the way it’s going.

‘When you don’t have the infrastructure and you don’t have the funding coming from the Home Office or the UK government, it does come to the point of what else can Glasgow try and do to tackle the issues.

‘We declared a housing emergency two and a half years ago, and nothing has really been done to solve that. So we’re still bringing loads of people here but we’re not fixing the infrastructure issues that are here.

‘I think communities in Glasgow are just at a sense of “we want to bring people here we want to be as diverse as possible as a city, we love that, but it’s just too much.”

‘In Scotland in particular the legislation is much weaker. So then we have an issue where most people coming to the city are either asylum seekers because we’re a dispersal city or they’re granted leave to remain so they’re coming straight to Glasgow, saying that they’re homeless and they’re automatically housed.

‘And council officers have said on committees that I sat on privately that there are bus loads, I remember that was the phrase that was used, that there are “bus loads” of young men coming from the north of England and from Belfast across to Glasgow.

‘Glasgow has to stop being a dispersal city. It should be paused, I think we should leave entirely. And the Scottish Government needs to end that homelessness loophole and build more homes.’

The concerns are clearly echoed by residents, particularly, as Cllr Kerr points out, in more deprived areas where there are higher concentrations of asylum housing.

‘The problem is you don’t know them’, John Mcauley, 56, a local in Possilpark told our reporter.

‘There’s far, far too many coming in. Half of my child’s school is full of asylum seekers now. And I’m not racist in any way, in the past maybe five or six years it’s just been an explosion of immigration.

‘They let them in but they don’t know if they are criminals, they don’t know their backgrounds. Apparently a lot of them throw away their passports before they come here.

‘Scotland has always been a tolerant, welcoming place, we’ve always been that way, but it’s not sustainable. It’s not sustainable to keep it like that now.

‘A British white person or a Scottish white person, we shouldn’t be the minority in our country.

‘Now there’s more immigrants around our neighbourhoods than our own people from growing up.

‘I know plenty of Scottish friends even at my age who can’t get a house and are still living with their parents. They’ve been trying for years but can’t get anything, yet the whole community seem to be flooded with migrants.

‘And I know a lot of people that have got the same sort of view.

‘They’re put up in the hotels and a lot of money is being put out. But homeless people are not getting housed.

Asked about the homelessness laws in Scotland, he said: ‘That’s probably part of the reason.

‘The laws are more suitable up here for immigrants to come here.

‘There’s quite a few migrants that live above my sisters’ house, from India, Vietnam, Caribbean, all over, and they all lived in England for two or three years and then for this reason come to Glasgow.’

An ex-serviceman echoed his concerns, claiming that refugees were being housed while veterans were having to live on the streets.

The man, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘They’re getting housing that veterans aren’t getting.

‘I don’t mind people that are coming and working and helping, like the nurses. We need that.

‘But people need to contribute.

‘I’m an ex-soldier myself. And I know lots of veterans, friends, who are sleeping under Waverley station in Edinburgh or on the streets in Glasgow. They’re not getting any housing.

‘Of course I understand they are fleeing their countries, but some of them aren’t.

‘They’re getting so much in benefits they’re apparently travelling back to their country for holidays, the same countries they are apparently fleeing from.

‘I’ve heard that from my friend who is a council worker.

‘The are taking up everything that our own people can’t get.

‘I know guys who are sleeping on the streets.

‘It’s a problem across Britain. People are just fed up. It’s not a problem if they are going to contribute.

‘And why is it never a man, a wife and a couple of wee kids. It’s always grown men, it’s 18–30-year-olds. Why are they not staying in their countries.

‘Families with kids are more than welcome is they are coming from a war-torn country.

‘But I always say, this is an island, there isn’t endless space, where are we going to put everybody?’

But there is without a doubt still a mix of views in the city.

Geraldine Gallagher, 60, told the Daily Mail that she doesn’t ‘see the problem’ with taking in refugees and thinks the issue lies with a lack of integration.

She said: ‘I don’t mind it. I don’t think the refugees are the problem.

‘I think the sense of community is lost, but that was the case well before the asylum seekers started coming in. There should be more done for the community to involve people and get them together.

‘The local authority needs to do more integration. That’s what is missing.’

Speaking from the Scottish Trades Union Congress office in Bridgeton, deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: ‘It’s part of a Scottish-wide, UK-wide, in our view misguided response to some very genuine problems.

‘We probably wouldn’t disagree with many of the core motivations of the people who think this. They are concerned about jobs and services just as we are.

‘The problem is instead of blaming the decision makers, the people who command our economy, they are blaming very scared, very vulnerable people who are here largely because they are in desperation to seek safety in our country.

‘I want to say for 10 or 15 years at least Glasgow has been identified and responded very positively as a key destination for asylum seekers.

‘I’ve been really proud about the way that’s been done.

‘But clearly allocating asylum seekers without the sufficient support to do it at the same time that you’ve got a broader housing crisis which has multiple causes and it’s not asylum seekers, then brings us to a point of crisis, where the general problem with housing, and the smaller specific problem with dispersing, come together.’

Over in Bridgeton’s high street, in Glasgow’s Southside, the trio of Union Jacks, saltire, and the Royal Standard, fly in unison.

But many say they do not identify with the flags.

One local said: ‘I grew up in Pollokfields where it is full of Indians and Pakistanis. And I think it’s great. I’ve got nothing against it.

‘The money is going on fighting foreign wars. Stop the wars and stop displacing people.

‘The people who are here were displaced by our wars.

‘And then they make them (the public) go against them.

’There’s less jobs, there’s less social stuff happening, so people look for someone to blame, and everybody blames them.

‘But I grew up with them and I’m not really seeing it become a problem.

‘And it must be hard for them to adapt here, we don’t exactly speak Queen’s English, it must be a very, very difficult community to fit into.

’When there’s on finger pointing at someone else there’s three fingers pointing back at you.

‘The Indians and Pakistanis, they put up shop work constantly to build it up. And then they buy another and they employ their people.

‘Most of us work until 5pm, they work all day.

‘Why can’t we do that?

‘Set up shop, build it up, buy another.

’But we’re too busy trying to get money off people and finding someone to blame.’

Another Bridgeton local, who did not wish to be identified, said he sympathises with refugees but also understands why public opinion is changing.

He said: ‘To invite more people in is putting of a strain on services.

‘It’s not about racism, it’s not about colour, there’s just too much of a strain. There’s no housing.

‘I’m a concierge man so I see what’s happening and I appreciate what’s going on.

‘That’s why all these flags are up, it’s a solemn state really.

‘The flags don’t represent me in that sense.

‘There is just no forward planning by the government. It’s alright saying “we’re welcoming people” but where’s the housing?

‘You can’t turn around and say “alright buddy come here” and you don’t have the facilities to accommodate them.

‘And they’ve known it for a long time that it’s not enough. And you can’t just build it overnight.

‘I understand people’s point, I wish politicians would take their finger out and look at it.

‘People get the impression that immigrants are getting treated before locals, and I see where they are coming from.

‘When I was a concierge at a high-rise flats, there was a certain amount of flats set back for the asylum seekers, and they would do them up. Strip back the walls, new paint, new furniture.

‘I was homeless at one point in my life and what I got was a joke. A wee tabletop oven, a single bed in a flat that needed badly renovated.

He added: ‘I’ve been brought up working with different cultures, I worked at Glasgow University for 15 years, then as a concierge, so it’s easy for me to adapt, I’ve grown up with a mix of cultures.

‘But for other people it’s harder for them.

‘And people aren’t mixing, there’s no integration. Instead there are ghettoes being built.

‘That’s what the problem is. People need to integrate.

’I’m not against the refugees. I always say if I was one of these people I would do the same. If I was an immigrant facing what they are facing I would do the same.

‘Half the problems are caused by the UK and America anyway.

‘But this council, they see stuff happen then they react instead of being proactive.

‘Where’s the housing? You need to build the housing.

‘The Union Jack is always up in Bridgeton, but the Royal Standards and Scottish flags are not usually here.’