New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy: Delivery Plan 2024-2026 - Year 1 Report

UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ visit to Scotland

In March 2025, New Scots partners welcomed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, to Scotland – his first visit since taking office in 2016. The UNHCR delegation spoke highly of their experience and praised the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy for its longstanding commitment to building a welcoming nation for forcibly displaced people. At a time of rising hate speech and disinformation, Scotland’s approach was recognised as a principled and hopeful alternative.

Visit to The Welcoming Association

At The Welcoming Association in Edinburgh staff outlined their work supporting refugees and people seeking asylum. In the roundtable discussion the Minister for Equalities, Kaukab Stewart, highlighted Scotland’s human rights-based approach to integration. The High Commissioner praised The Welcoming and Scotland’s wider efforts, contrasting them with the ‘narrative of impossibility’ that often dominates global discourse on refugees.

Leadership Board Meeting, Scottish Parliament

The High Commissioner met with members of the New Scots Leadership Board – the Minister for Equalities, Kaukab Stewart MSP, the Chief Executive of Scottish Refugee Council, Dr Sabir Zazai, and COSLA Community Wellbeing Spokesperson, Councillor Maureen Chalmers – at the Scottish Parliament. Discussions covered the vital role of local authorities and partners in delivering humanitarian protection schemes, alongside the significant challenge of housing shortages across the country. Participants highlighted the Strategy’s strengths, including the focus on partnership and collaboration, the robust use of quantitative and qualitative data, and the role of an independent chair in balancing priorities. The conversation also reflected on the Strategy’s six UNHCR-aligned principles and efforts to address gaps in support through the Delivery Plan.

Two of the New Scots Core Group Advisers also shared their perspectives and expertise at the meeting. They reflected on their involvement in the community consultation, the importance of lived experience in decision-making, and explained the recent change in their group’s name from Lived Experience Representatives (see Advisers’ reflection piece for more detail).

The High Commissioner welcomed continued advocacy, and commended both the Strategy and the Advisers as international examples of best practice.

Meeting with the First Minister

In meeting the First Minister, the High Commissioner praised Scotland’s leadership in adopting a UNHCR-endorsed model of refugee support – markedly different from approaches seen in many other countries.

Discussion touched on the global challenges of displacement, political shifts, and the multiple crises affecting refugee responses. The First Minister commented that not only was supporting refugees ‘the right thing to do morally’ but that there were real advantages in doing so; pointing to a shortage of working-age people and that refugees make an economic contribution to Scotland. He highlighted the pilot for free bus travel support for people seeking asylum and emphasised the importance of the Ukraine scheme as a model for future programmes.

The High Commissioner expressed his hope that Scotland’s example could serve as inspiration for similar approaches elsewhere around the world.

“Scotland has been a long-standing champion of refugee protection, and the New Scots refugee integration strategy led by the Government, together with local authorities and civil society, offers an inspiring example of a ‘whole of society’ approach.

During my visit to Edinburgh, I was pleased to hear about the partnership working in Scotland to promote a holistic approach to refugee protection and social cohesion. I was particularly moved by the opportunity to hear directly from the New Scots Core Group Advisers.”

Filippo Grandi

UNHCR High Commissioner