From Pollokshields to Falkirk: How Anti-Migrant Protests Are Reshaping Scotland’s Election
Scotland has long sold itself as uniquely welcoming to migrants—a country where locals once surrounded a Home Office van to demand the release of two Indian men in Pollokshields. But the rise of Reform UK Scotland elections anti-migrant protests Falkirk tells a different story. The Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk now sees protesters chanting “Send them home,” while saltires raised on lampposts signal a shift toward blood-and-soil nationalism . As May 2026 elections approach, Scotland confronts an uncomfortable question: Is the country as immune to anti-immigration politics as it once believed? How are anti-migrant protests changing Scotland’s self-image? The “Glasgow Girls” who campaigned against a classmate’s deportation and Pollokshields residents who chanted “These are our neighbours, let them go” became symbols of Scottish moral superiority. But in Falkirk, the chant has become “Send them home” . As The Guardian ’s Dani Garavelli writes, the Falkirk protests a...