South African airport lounges are so much better than European ones. Better quality food & drink. I will die on this hill. #proudlysouthafrican

This is very interesting…tome for the UK to do what my home country South Africa does in terms of professional regulation of architects and technologists. www.riba.org/news/riba-pr...

Love an airport where there are free newspapers to tide over the long connection waits…happily surprised to get an English one in Frankfurt!

We’ve already earned our settlement, it’s so unfair to move the goal posts now.

The restrictions on work visa rules brought in in July are cutting immigration much more than predicted. Dependant numbers remain higher, but will fall over time as most will be dependants of immigrants already here.

New Home Office impact assessment finds that cutting skilled and social care visas will cost the UK up to £10 billion with a central estimate of -£5.4 billion. It would be good if this got even a fraction of the coverage devoted to the endless debate about boats, flags and Turkish barber shops

“Eight Hundred Years of Giving” is of course the official slogan of Britain in Ireland.

"If governments want to boost growth, making visas for skilled workers simpler and cheaper is an obvious place to start." www.personneltoday.com/hr/uk-and-us...

The government's proposals to calculate settlement qualifying periods on a case-by-case basis will penalise migrants who get sick, are exploited or become destitute. Read our analysis and understand the proposed contributing factors ⬇️ www.workrightscentre.org/publications...

This is going to be interesting.

Today we’ll get latest net immigration figures - They’ll show immigration for work is plummeting. Why is this not part of the discussion on Rachel Reeves balancing her books & stalled growth? For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit. #r4today

Great to hear Rachel Reeves acknowledge that "there are many reasons why people choose to have children then find themselves in difficult times. The death of a partner. Separation. Ill health. A lost job. I don’t believe that children should bear the brunt of that." So why should migrant children?

Anyone know where the OBR got its migration figures from? Cos they say migration won’t change in direct contrast to @jamesbowes01.bsky.social, @sundersays.bsky.social & @jdportes.bsky.social ’s research. Seems the OBR hasn’t done its homework?

"We grant people different rights based on their genetic heritage and on which scrap of land they happened to be born on. That’s mad, isn’t it?" I just think, when debating immigration and so on, that we should try not to lose sight of the fact that "nationality" is a made up thing.

This government will pursue a policy that is economically, morally and socially bad. Forcing people to only be eligible to settle after 10/15/20/30 years depending on how poor and marginalised you are. It will not address division. It will manifest a different, more harmful one.

Have just clocked that the £50k number in the ‘earned settlement’ is based on UK tax brackets. But in Scotland, we move into the higher rate at £43k AND we pay 43% not 40%. So why don’t we get a reduction in yrs from £43k (seeing as our salaries are anyway lower than the Eng)?

The economic illiteracy of Starmer’s Labour knows no bounds… good thing there isn’t an aging population & falling immigration… oh, wait… www.ft.com/content/a212...

Definitely most will be. The figures I have for architects are £32,000-£36,000-£43,000. I just clipped my list to the 20 most sponsored graduate level jobs for space (excluding public sector jobs where everyone will qualify in 5 years: doctors, nurses, teachers etc).

Nobody "automatically gains settled status after five years". The settled status scheme has closed. Depending on type of visa you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. You need to meet language requirements and pass the Life in the UK test And be of good character. It is not automatic.

Shabana Mahmood's proposal to stop being told to "go back home" is to send people "home". Her proposal to stop black and brown people from feeling like they don't belong, is to bake in to the immigration system that they will never belong.

Absolutely gobsmacked at the new settlement rules. Basically no architecture firm outside of London will be able to employ architects/arch assistants now. 10 yrs of fees, ridiculous going rates...I get I Shabana, you want me out of here. Time to take my assets & skills and go!

I was so worried this would happen. Once architectural heritage is lost, it is lost forever. Not to mention the embodied carbon waste. But I guess Labour only care about winning the next election & not actually about long term consequences.

I don't understand how the government can think it is a good idea to *at the same time* make our labour market more rigid, increase the statutory wage floor, increase the cost of hiring at home and overseas! Obviously you should pick at most *two* to do at any one time.

I’m so sick of the narrative that migrants are cheap labour. Those of us on skilled worker visas are paid better than UK workers & we cost our employers more through UKVI fees. And all the fees & NHS surcharges we pay. Would be nice if the media reported that along with calling us ‘the #Boriswave’.

A reminder that we (migrants) are contributing financially to the UK state BEFORE we even step foot in the UK!

This is heartbreaking.

Almost finished reading this Scottish masterpiece & my conclusion is that anyone who is nostalgic for post war Britain should be forced to read it. Esp anyone thinking of voting #Reform. We cannot go backwards.

I earn less than £35,000 a year - where's my winter fuel payment?

Not #Scottish #Labour asking for my vote the same week as referring to me as ‘squalid’ & ‘causing incalculable damage’ & threatening me with 5 extra yrs of not having settled status… I think they‘ll find this migrant will not be voting for them in #Holyrood.

At the urging of my mentor, I have finally got around to setting up a substack. My thoughts on #ConservationArchitecture in Scotland as well as #Architecture in general in the UK & #SouthAfrica. Best read with a coffee! open.substack.com/pub/conserva...

It's complex, but essentially, it is true: Restrictive immigration policies reduce the possibility of circular migration, which is much more common in non-restricted scenarios. This can mean restricting migrants' rights forces them to stay put, raising numbers over all. #PMQs

Someone needs to tell #Labour that you can’t lower legal #immigration AND speed up house building. We have a massive skills crisis on our sites. There is also the fact that the UK has an ageing population…so who’s funding the #triplelock if not us migrants?!

Absolutely freezing scaffold this morning…it wasn’t just the lead and slates that were frosty! I think my toes are still defrosting. But it was still magical to be under a Bluesky in #Glasgow!

Even though it’s #freezing, it is lovely to have winter light filter through because the #Glasgow sky is blue for once!

This week, led a scaffold tour of JGA’s latest tenement project in Hyndland for the Glasgow City Heritage Trust, who are one of the funders. I love sharing what we’re doing on these projects, in the hope that more people are inspired to take care of their #tenements! #Glasgow #Architecture