Alexander Hunter still uses the Gaelic spelling Ailig for his first name, an acknowledgement of the time he spent immersed in Gaelic culture while studying traditional music in Benbecula under the auspices of the University of the Highlands and Islands.

It was, after all, the language and the culture of his forebears. He took that passion into his PhD in composition studies at Napier University in Edinburgh which he completes this May. And it informs his other great love, the teaching of music students at Stow College in Glasgow and the Academy of Music and Sound in the city where he now lives with his wife, who currently studies at Glasgow School of Art.

He's also a talented double bassist who plays a variety of other instruments when he gigs with other groups around the country; an important part of paying the domestic bills and underwriting his wife's fees. He has always, he says, made a point of being self-supporting.

The 29-year-old is a man who single-mindedly pursued his childhood ambition of total immersion in Scots creativity. Just a pity Scotland is kicking him out at the end of the summer, back to the US from whence he came as a teenager, brought up in Illinois by a family fiercely proud of its Celtic roots.

Correction, the UK Border Agency is kicking him out, having changed the rules this time last year. Previously, under the guidelines of the Scottish Government's Fresh Talent Initiative set up by the Labour-LibDem administration in 2004 and continued by their SNP successors, foreign graduates were given leave to remain and work for two years after their studies were complete. In April 2012, the Whitehall agency cut that to just four months.

Hold on, didn't the agency say just last week that it was relaxing the rules for postgraduate students who wanted to stay on? Well, yes. Provided their degree was in business administration and they were classified as "graduate entrepreneurs". Oh, and there was another concession. UK companies could bring in foreign employees without the usual migration palaver. Provided they earned north of £152,000 a year.

Under these rules, says Hunter, the only music composers likely to get in under the wire would have to be called Mozart or John Williams.

You will not be shocked to learn that Hunter's earnings fall short of that target. In fact they fall short of the £20,000 a year the UK Border Agency says he must prove he can earn before they will consider an extension.

Further, according to the specialist immigration lawyer he consulted, he would need to find a management sponsor, agree to work only for that sponsor and be audited fortnightly on his creative contribution.

That is not quite how the music business works. As Hunter notes, half his income comes from teaching and the other half is dependent on his taking work with a variety of different groups to maximise his income. He literally can't afford to work for only one outfit, supposing they could give him as much work anyway.

So here, once again, is the nonsense of a migration policy being devised and applied with no account taken of the community, or indeed the country, in which it will operate. The Fresh Talent Initiative was born of the recognition that Scotland needed to attract and retain bright youngsters, not least to redress the demographic balance.

In the 10 years between 2001 and mid-2011 the under-16 population in Scotland fell by 6%, while it went up by 15% in the 59 to 64-year-old age group and by the same percentage in the over-75s.

Four years after its inception a study of the impact of the Fresh Talent Working in Scotland Scheme found a number of unexpected bonuses for the students and their host country.

One was that the experience of working, as opposed to studying, gave them a broader and deeper understanding of Scotland and its culture. This in turn led them to advocate for Scotland to friends and relatives when they returned to their home country.

It was an innovative policy which did no harm to Scottish universities and colleges in their increasingly enthusiastic trawl for foreign students to boost their fees income.

Being able to access a two-year extension post graduation was, for many, a seductive reason to come here rather than elsewhere.

It's fair to report a very small number of further education establishments went rogue in their pursuit of foreign students, offering a false prospectus of meaningful education to incoming students whose main aim was gaining an entry visa rather than qualifications relevant to their skillset.

In the end, these particular "institutions" got what their duplicity deserved.

Nevertheless, overall, it was thought sufficiently imaginative and effective for a version of it to be rolled out elsewhere in Britain.

Primarily it was a policy developed in response to a very particular set of Scottish issues which, rather obviously, are not the same as those to be found in the south-east of England.

And overwhelmingly the experience has been a positive one. A country gaining in intellectual capital, new blood, fresh insights, and international profile.

Hunter, and new young "Scots" like him, make a valuable and net contribution to our country and our culture. Sending them packing is plain short-sighted.