Glasgow is a welcoming city.

Our home has been shaped and, ultimately, enriched by migration over many generations – from the Scottish Highlands and Islands and every county in Ireland, to Italians, Jews from Eastern Europe and families from every corner of the Commonwealth.

More recently, we have welcomed thousands of new Glaswegians as a dispersal city and remain the only community in Scotland with a significant refugee population. Well over 90% of all refugees that settle in Scotland have made a home in Glasgow.

Migrants, from near and far, have found Glasgow a place that is ready to understand their lives, embrace their culture and share its own with new neighbours and friends.

Globally, though, the world faces a refugee crisis.

The number of people displaced by conflict or persecution – and, increasingly, by climate change and natural disasters – has doubled in the last decade.

The overwhelming majority of these refugees never have and never will get anywhere near the United Kingdom – or any other rich country, for that matter. They are hosted by developing nations, often neighbouring whatever situation they have been forced to flee.

As a wealthy country, the United Kingdom has both a moral and practical responsibility to play a part in addressing this global challenge.

But asylum and refugee policy in the UK not only puts barriers in the way of successful integration, it also increasingly........

© Herald Scotland