Immigration is good for Scotland - so bring back the post-study visa
Scotland has some of the best universities in the world, and would benefit from international graduates of those universities staying in Scotland and contributing their new skills to our economy.
That seems an uncontroversial statement, and indeed has just been endorsed by 100 leaders from academia and business, but we face a battle to get the UK immigration system to acknowledge it.
Until 2012, we had a 'Post-Study Work Visa' that allowed students to live and work in Scotland for two years after graduation. It began in Scotland as 'Fresh Talent' in 2005, before becoming a UK-wide scheme as part of the new immigration system in 2008.
But the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition abolished post-study work visas altogether in 2012, as part of their UKIP-appeasing campaign against migrants.
The door to positive change was opened a crack by the Smith Commission, in which all five parties agreed that the Scottish and UK governments should begin discussions on a new post-study work visa for Scotland.
Now the Europe and International Development Minister, Humza Yousaf MSP, has convened a cross-party working group to examine how we can bring this about. I've been appointed by the Scottish Greens to represent our party on this new group.
I'm very proud that Greens on both sides of the border have refused to go along with the anti-immigrant rhetoric indulged by the old Westminster parties. When Labour released their infamous "Controls on Immigration" coffee mug, we countered with one that reads "Love immigration - vote Green".
Greens recognise that people are an asset. We know that migrants make huge contributions to Scotland's economic, social and cultural life. We're not fooled by the right-wing parties that seek to blame immigration for the damaging effects of their own policies on everything from housing to low pay.
Nowhere is that more clear than in Scotland's higher education sector. Our wee country boasts five of the world's top 200 universities, attracting students from all over the world - our own Co-Convenor, Maggie Chapman, was one of them when she came to Scotland from Zimbabwe to study.
International students make Scotland's universities the world centres of education that they are, but as soon as they graduate they are forced out of the country. They take their years of top-class education, their skills, and their international experience with them when they go.
The University of California system has invested almost incalculable sums of public money in educating students from across the US. With no California version of the Home Office to throw them out, many of those students stayed in California upon graduation. The results include Silicon Valley.
If we want our brilliant international graduates to help us build our own Silicon Glen, or solve the engineering challenges of clean energy, or create the best health service in the world, then we have to stop letting a paranoid immigration system throw that talent away.
This is just one of many, many ways in which the anti-immigrant obsession of Westminster politics harms both Scotland and the people who would like to make their homes here. But with cross-party effort, it might very well be one we can change.