Welcome to Britain’s asylum capital with one main statistic | UK | News | EUROtoday

A staggering 28.8 % of scholars in Glasgow’s faculties now communicate English as an extra language (EAL), the very best proportion wherever in Scotland, in keeping with alarming new information from the Scottish Government. The variety of these EAL learners has surged by almost a 3rd since 2019, sparking issues in regards to the metropolis’s capacity to deal with the inflow of recent arrivals.

The figures, collected final September, confirmed that out of 71,957 college students enrolled in Glasgow’s faculties, a whopping 20,717 spoke English as an extra language. This class encompasses pupils who’re new to English and nonetheless growing their language expertise and fluency.

To assist these college students, the town council deploys specialist lecturers, whereas classroom lecturers additionally present direct help to some EAL learners.

Glasgow dubbed ‘Britain’s asylum capital’

The revelations come amid rising worries about Glasgow’s capability to handle the surge of recent arrivals, with the town now being labeled “Britain’s asylum capital.” Glasgow at the moment homes extra asylum seekers than another native authority within the UK, with 3,777 being accommodated on the finish of September.

Scotland’s extra lenient homelessness guidelines, which require councils to deal with all unintentionally homeless individuals, together with single males, are believed to be attracting refugees from so far as Belfast, Birmingham, London, Manchester, and Liverpool.

Council insists not all are new arrivals

Despite the alarming figures, Glasgow council bosses maintained that not all English learners have been current immigrants, noting that the annual variety of abroad enrolments had truly decreased by over 1,000 within the present educational yr. They additionally attributed the rise in EAL learners partly to extra correct recording of scholar numbers.

However, Glasgow nonetheless boasted the most important share of EAL college students in Scotland in 2024, adopted by Edinburgh (22.1 %) and Aberdeen (21.6 %). Inverclyde, in west central Scotland, noticed essentially the most dramatic improve over the previous 5 years, with the variety of EAL college students greater than tripling between 2019 and 2024.

Opposition slams SNP’s ‘failure to combine’

Opposition figures have described the findings as “staggering,” claiming they underscore the SNP’s failure to combine immigrant communities into Scottish society. Stephen Kerr, a Tory MSP, warned of the “serious consequences” the size of demand might have on academic requirements, social cohesion, and the long-term well being of Scottish society and economic system.

Kerr said, “A cohesive society depends on a shared language. For so many children of immigrants to have a level of English that requires support at school is a failure of government to ensure that immigrant communities are integrating into wider Scottish society.”

He accused the SNP of “avoiding the difficult work of integrating immigrant communities under a misguided politically correct agenda that is now failing these children,” calling for a “complete rethink” to make sure that all residents can absolutely take part in Scottish society.

Glasgow is ‘enriched’

In response, a spokesman for Glasgow council stated, “Glasgow thrives as a city enriched by many different languages and cultures, and we proudly celebrate this diversity and the positive impact it brings to all our school communities.”

As the controversy rages on, all eyes shall be on the upcoming launch of knowledge for the 2025-26 educational yr later this month, which is anticipated to shed additional gentle on this contentious challenge.