Glasgow's asylum crisis stokes unsavoury tensions

Morning readers. A weekend of ceremonial drama and political blunder — more on that anon. We’re taken aback that there are now well over 5,000 signed up to our newsletters; quite the wee community. A big thank you to the over 250 paying subscribers among you, as well. We’re still offering 20% off monthly and annual subscriptions — so dither not if it is more high quality journalism which you seek.  

Dani Garavelli’s weekend read, delicately balancing feelings of guilt and resentment with the larger politics at play, got straight to the heart of an issue that’s been on many people’s lips of late. But have boundary changes and gerrymandering ever been written about with such sentiment? Michael Taggart, writing on X, described it as a: “Really interesting article highlighting the real, accumulative and ongoing effect of Thatcherite legislation that has chipped away at the social and cultural fabric within the city boundaries.”

Niall Christie, meanwhile, thought it an “excellent and much-needed piece”, opining that “Rethinking local democracy is the bigger question” on the agenda. On Bluesky, Neil Scott called it a “typically great article”. The villain of the story, according to Scott, was Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Lang, who broke up Strathclyde Regional Council in 1994 for “ideological reasons”.

This week, we’re going to be asking if the city’s parks are being run into the ground, as well as taking a trip down memory lane with the guid auld boys of Govan’s shipyards. There’s another story in the works too, but our lips remain sealed for the time being. For now, you’ll have to sate your appetite with the Monday briefing.  

Your Bell briefing

🗳️ Bye election, hi election. A Labour councillor elected just over a week ago looks set to resign her position over a legal fumble, reports The Herald. Mary McNab won the 21 November by-election in North East ward, but as an employee of Glasgow City Council, she was required to step down from her role the next working day. This didn’t happen and, writes Andrew Learmonth, “meant that by the operation of the law, she ceased to be a councillor”. Apparently this is the first time such a case has occurred in the UK (Glasgow exceptionalism), and the council is now applying to Sheriff Principal, Aisha Anwar, to get further guidance on the law, presumably hoping to avoid another costly electoral contest. Which reminds us: Partick/Kelvindale goes to the polls on Thursday this week. 

🚮 Will Glasgow ever be at one with its waste? Refuse workers are furious again after new council plans to merge bin depots and create one ‘cleansing superhub’ in the city. And they let it be known, by returning council letters sent out to inform staff of the changes. “The decision to hand these letters back is a message loud and clear to the powers that be at the local authority - people just aren’t going to accept this,” Chris Mitchell, GMB cleansing convener told The Glasgow Times. “We won’t be shoehorned into depots that aren’t suitable and it is a move that will impact public services - and that is not right.” 

🌚 We’re trying to avoid lunar puns in this one but it’s going to be difficult: a Glaswegian artist is going to see his work sent to the moon next year. The artwork of Dumbarton born-and-based Lewis Deeney has been selected for inclusion in a 2025 instalment of the Lunar Codex project, an archive of contemporary art, books, music, poetry, and film, all digitised and packed off to the Moon, presumably for the cheesemen up there to enjoy. Deeney’s art — which he describes as “a compelling interplay of chaos and order” — will join that of 35,00 other creatives, drawn from “254 countries, territories, and indigenous nations”. Handily, if you can’t get to the Moon, Deeney also has an exhibition at Salt Space Gallery opening this week (6-7 December). Glasgow World has more.

Big story: Glasgow's asylum crisis stokes unsavoury tensions

Topline: On Friday, it was revealed Glasgow welcomes more asylum seekers than any other dispersal city in the UK. And with the new Labour government’s commitment to working through the asylum applications backlog quicker, the numbers are set to rise. This should be good news, and it is, in part, for those anxiously waiting for the right to live and work in the UK. However, a lack of financial support from Westminster for asylum seekers, both before and after they receive settled status, is seeing an increase in the proportion of Glasgow’s homeless population with a refugee background — and putting more pressure on cash-strapped councils. 

Pressure cooker: In an interview with The Scotsman last week, Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken said the city was “proud” of its record “providing sanctuary” to people seeking asylum, but added that a lack of Home Office support was “costing the city tens of millions. The scale of those pressures can be seen in the numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Glasgow compared with other major UK cities.” 

• Last year, Glasgow took in 4,075 asylum seekers. Birmingham, which has a population of 1.158m, welcomed 2,476.
• Speaking to The Scotsman, Scottish Refugee Council’s policy specialist, Daniel O’Malley, stressed the impact this is having on refugees in Glasgow, saying: “When a person is granted refugee protection, they should be thinking about how to rebuild their lives: instead they’re increasingly worried about where they’re going to sleep this winter.”

Unsettled: The numbers reflect this reality. Since 2023, the number of asylum seekers in Glasgow who have found themselves homeless shot up by 96% to 2,709. The reason? When an asylum application is granted, refugees have 28 days to leave their assigned accommodation and find somewhere else to live. In this market, that’s no easy task — especially given asylum seekers don’t have the right to work until they are granted settled status. As a result, many find themselves homeless. To counteract this, Glasgow council are having to contract more temporary accommodation ‘solutions’ — like the 30 hotels that hit local headlines recently. 

Driving a wedge: Unfortunately in some quarters, the situation has provoked not sympathy for homeless refugees, but resentment. A recent clip from The Streets — a vlogging duo who report on homelessness and addiction in Glasgow — saw presenter Francis stating that “we’re seeing homeless hostels being filled up with other people from other countries [...] and nae disrespect to anybody but at the end of the day, we [Scottish people] need to put ourselves first”. Later, Francis says that governments need to realise that “opening up our borders and flooding our country” is causing housing to be prioritised for “somebody else from another country”. 

Heard it all before: This sentiment is becoming worryingly familiar. We heard it while reporting in Maryhill and it's clearly one of the drivers behind the rise of Reform UK in Scotland. September polling suggests the party has the backing of 12% of Scottish voters; if such support is maintained until 2026, polling guru John Curtice has said Reform could win up to 16 MSPs. Reform’s director Richard Tice MP thinks that the party can become “kingmaker” in the Scottish parliament, overtaking the Tories to become the third party in Holyrood by 2026. Reform clearly have their eyes fixed north of the border; this weekend saw the party and associates rock up to the Royal George in Perth for their Scottish conference. The loudest cheers of the day, apparently, were for Bellshill boy and Reform chairman Zia Yusuf, who railed against Humza Yousaf and his speech on racism, a familiar refrain of the right. 

Number crunching: We asked John Curtice directly about the Holyrood aspirations of Glasgow’s Reform branch. He told The Bell that Reform “would likely have a good, though not guaranteed chance of winning two seats in Glasgow” as it currently stands, and certainly could claw their way to fourth on regional lists. Whether they would overtake Glasgow’s Greens, however, “looks too close to call”. Both parties could potentially end up with two seats apiece. 

Bottom line: In times of economic scarcity, we know impulse sometimes leads to division over unity. But asylum seekers are disproportionately facing homelessness both in Glasgow and beyond, which somewhat counteracts the idea that they are being prioritised for housing over other groups. As ever, this is a case of more funding from various governments being desperately needed. No immediate solution is forthcoming without that — but blaming the refugees isn’t getting us any closer to one.

Spot of the week - Burrell Collection

Fresh from winning the Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland award last week, we took a wander around the Burrell at the weekend. The glass frontage makes for a pleasing interplay between the woodlands of Pollok and the ground floor gallery — the silver birch providing counterpoint to the anatomical perfection of Rodin’s Age of Bronze. But with Dani Garavelli’s weekend read still very much in our minds, it was a retro logo on a plaque by the entrance that caught our attention, pointing out that financial support for the Burrell Collection was provided by none other than… Strathclyde Regional Council.

Media Picks

Unwelcome advice: Following Reform UK’s gains in the Glasgow by-elections, we felt it our journalistic duty to listen to Martyn Greene, the party’s Scottish organiser, on the Holyrood Sources podcast. Geoff Aberdein (Alex Salmond’s former chief of staff) and Andy Maciver (Scottish Conservatives former head of communications) were both compelled to give Greene detailed campaigning advice on how best to position Reform politically to maximise vote share in Scotland — apparently unable to withhold their expertise even when speaking to populist right wingers. And if you’re looking for more on the reformation and rise of Reform, look no further than Alex Forsyth’s recent audio documentary.  

Thunder lesbian, for a limited time only: “I am to womanhood what Northern Ireland is to the United Kingdom; I’m part of it with a few exceptions.” So begins Susie McCabe’s comedy special from 2023, Femme Fatality, currently on the iPlayer for another week or so. Known for her vulgar wit and deadly delivery, the comedian reflects on growing up queer to a sold-out show at the King’s. “Being gay was the worst thing in the world in the 80s,” she says, describing herself as a “thunder lesbian — a lesbian so lesbian she makes other lesbians question if they are in fact lesbian”. 

A tale of two funerals: Expectedly, politics played out at the ceremonies of Alex Salmond and Janey Godley over the weekend. While Godley’s send-off at St Mary’s was a fittingly colourful affair, Salmond’s service at St Giles’ was altogether more sombre. Conspicuous in her absence was Nicola Sturgeon, who’d opted to attend the former, “as pointed a comment as she could possibly have made”, wrote Magnus Linklater in The Times. De mortuis nil nisi bonum — only good to be spoken of the dead — was the order of the day. “Thus there was no reference to the trial Salmond once faced, in the High Court just across the road, when he was charged and acquitted of sexual harassment — there was only a phrase from the minister who reminded us that we had come ‘not to beatify a saint but to celebrate a human being’.” 

Things to do - 

Tuesday

🎭 We’ll almost certainly be including a panto a week in our Things To Do round up until the day we shut down the servers for Christmas. Inclusion does not equal endorsement; if the show is bad, please take it up with the panto ombudsman (besides, isn’t that half the fun?). With that in mind, Òran Mór’s ‘Weans in The Wood’ is billed as ‘subversive’ and tickets are from £23.50.

Wednesday

🍸 Cocktail aficionados Blue Door Bartending and local tattoo artist Sophie Rowan have teamed up for another round of ‘DRINK!’, their cocktail/ink pop-up event. Over twenty five artists will be exhibiting their best designs, but if you’re not in the mood for some fresh body art, no fear: there’s merch and a tat-inspired cocktail menu from the Blue Door team to keep you happy. From 5pm, West Side Tavern, 162 Dumbarton Road; free entry but cash only for merch.

Thursday

🙋‍♂️ The Ferret and a panel of experts are exploring how online misogyny has taken a hold on young men, as well as exploring potential solutions. Hosted by equality campaigner and researcher Talat Yaqoob. 6:30pm at Romano Lav on Nithsdale Street. Tickets here.

Friday 

🎶 Civic House are welcoming back vinyl stalwarts Rubadub for a vaguely festive get together to celebrate the city’s music and food culture. Boosterhooch, Klaus and Ribeka are on the decks, with plates from the good folks at Parveen’s. Doors at 5pm, food from 6pm. Free entry before 8pm, £7 on the door afterwards. Info here.

Saturday

⛪️ The Bethlehem Cultural Festival is holding its annual carol service in Glasgow Cathedral, remembering those who have been killed and those who continue to suffer. The synchronised lighting of Christmas trees with Manger Square in Bethlehem is paused again due to the ongoing situation in Palestine, but the service will remain a “moving symbol of peace and solidarity”. 5pm. Free entry. Info here.