FOR Yohan Perera, the UK Government’s recent immigration rule changes feel like a betrayal.
The 32-year-old Sri Lankan came to Scotland in 2022 with his wife, who was studying for a masters degree. His visa was quickly sponsored by a local care company in Perth.
He did his apprenticeship and Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) – a nationally recognised work-based qualification.
In the meantime, Perera’s family grew. His wife gave birth to a baby girl. He then successfully became a qualified carer – satisfying all the immigration requirements at the time. His family planned for a future in Scotland – a country they now love.
Then, the rug was pulled from under them on May 12.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer – during a speech in which he invoked far-right Enoch Powell-style language – announced significant changes to immigration rules to significantly reduce net migration as Labour seek to head off the electoral threat from Reform UK.
This included a new system to end automatic settlement and citizenship for anyone living here for five years, with migrants instead required to spend a decade in the UK before applying to stay.
This directly impacted Perera, whose visa is now set to expire in 2028 — with he and his family’s future in Scotland thrown into doubt.
“We feel horrendous,” he told The National. “Why do they do it like this? We just fulfilled all the requirements.”
The UK Government immigration changes will impact many sectors, but Scotland’s care industry is one that is under particular threat given its high dependence on international workers.
This wasn’t helped by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also announcing the UK Government is closing the care worker visa route for overseas recruitment.
It’s a move that has put it in odds with the SNP – who have repeatedly called for a bespoke Scottish visa to attract workers to fill labour shortages.
Kaukab Stewart, Scotland’s migration minister, said on Tuesday – as the immigration rules officially came into effect – that Labour’s approach “simply isn’t working for Scotland” and will “hinder the prosperity of Scotland”.
She added: “Ending the international recruitment of care workers, without sufficient notice or any substantial consultation on its impact, will be devastating for the care sector in Scotland and across the UK.”
The challenges faced by the care sector in Scotland can also be linked to the country's ageing population.
There are more than one million people aged 65 and over in Scotland, according to the National Records of Scotland.
The impact of these changes will be felt across the country but disproportionately so in Perth and Kinross, which has a significantly higher proportion of older people than the national average – including the most over-85s of any area in Scotland.
Scottish Care – which represents the largest group of independent social care providers across the country – conducted a national survey of its members in May focusing on immigration and the role of international recruitment in the social care sector.
It found that the restriction or end of international recruitment would present serious consequences for the sector’s workforce sustainability, financial viability, and most importantly, the ability to deliver essential care and support services to those who rely on them.
Scottish Care also did a more focused follow-up in Perth and Kinross to explore the impact at a regional level, including a survey of local care providers – the findings of which it has shared with The National.
It found that, if international recruitment ends, many services in the area believe it would have a “high to significant impact on the sustainability of their workforce”.
Lakmal Suranga is another local care worker from Sri Lanka – a community that disproportionately props up Perth and Kinross’s care sector – that is also set to be impacted by the UK Government immigration changes.
The 36-year-old came to the UK in 2022 with his wife Vishmi and daughter Lithisha, who was just three years old at the time.
Like Perera, his family sees Scotland as home and was planning for a future here before the immigration changes.
“Our daughter, now six years old, is happily settled in school. She has made friends, receives a high-quality education, and has adapted beautifully to life in Scotland. This country has become our home — not just where we live, but where we truly belong,” he told The National.
He doesn’t feel like the rule changes are fair at all.
“Like many other families, we carefully planned our future based on the existing UK immigration rules, which currently allow people on skilled worker or student-related visas to apply for settlement after 5 years,” Suranga said.
“With that in mind, we’ve invested emotionally, financially, and socially into our life here. We pay over £700 a month in income tax and around £150 in council tax, and we’ve also started building our pension savings in the UK. We were even hoping to buy a house soon — a dream that now hangs in the balance.”
He added: “Changing the goalposts halfway through our journey feels not only unfair but incredibly destabilising. It has thrown our future into uncertainty — impacting everything from our financial plans to our daughter’s stability and emotional wellbeing.
We feel anxious, disheartened, and let down.”
Suranga went on: “We came here legally, we work hard, we pay taxes, and we contribute to the community. All we are asking for is the chance to settle under the rules we arrived with, so we can continue to live, work, and raise our daughter in the country we’ve come to love.
“Scotland has welcomed us with warmth, and we want to give back. But these sudden policy shifts risk turning hope into hardship — especially for families like ours who came here with trust and long-term dreams.”
The local MP, Pete Wishart, has called Labour’s immigration changes “as economically nonsensical as they are morally bankrupt” and called for the Home Secretary to scrap them.
“Like most of Europe, Scotland is facing a demography crisis; an especially acute problem in Perth and Kinross which has the highest proportion of over-85s in Scotland. Against this backdrop, immigration plays a crucial role in meeting the ever-increasing demand on the likes of our care sector,” he told The National.
“Since these new regulations were announced, I have been inundated with heart-breaking enquiries from constituents, particularly from members of Perth’s Sri Lankan community, who have made Scotland their home but who are now feeling compelled to leave.”
The SNP MP added: “These are hardworking, taxpaying members of society who provide an exceptional standard of care to our sick and elderly. They are rightly fed up with having their lives continuously made more difficult all so the UK Government can get some trivial numbers down on a spreadsheet.
“Labour plans are therefore as economically nonsensical as they are morally bankrupt, which is why I have called on the Home Secretary to scrap them altogether. I have already heard of constituents’ care packages being withdrawn as a result, and this problem is only going to get worse if they don’t urgently change course.”
