EVERYONE who has made a trip to the Highlands will have enjoyed being served in a cafe or hotel by an EU national at some point.

Always pleasant, with impeccable English, they are mainly students enjoying a summer working in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

But then they are off at the end of summer, no doubt with a lifetime of memories from their trip to Scotland.

It is a scenario that is repeated right across the country as many young people come here to take advantage of the many good quality jobs that are on offer during the summer.

According to many experts, all these opportunities will now cease to exist because of the new proposed immigration rules that will limit the number of immigrants who are allowed to work in this country after Brexit.

This will cause many businesses to have insurmountable staff shortages that will mean almost certain closure. Entire rural areas will face economic disaster as businesses close and people move away.

But to others, the new rules will mean that young locals will be able to get the jobs that were once held by foreign nationals. This would end unemployment and fragile, rural communities will instead thrive.

The truth is, as ever, somewhere in between.

However, maybe it is the time to ask if rural Scotland has become too reliant on tourism and efforts must be stepped up to provide quality, full-time jobs in these areas instead. Young people have to be given a reason to stay and put down roots and have families. Tourists will always visit Scotland, it was recently voted the most beautiful country in the world, and a thriving tourist sector will provide seasonal jobs for thousands of people.

But while the Highlands are alive in summer, travel anywhere in the winter and it's an entirely different story. Cafes, shops and restaurants are closed and the streets are empty.

It is not just temporary working foreign nationals who disappear from rural Scotland when the tourists do, locals too head elsewhere, many permanently and this is a situation that has been happening for generations.

Policy makers now have a golden opportunity to try and halt this decline once and for all by creating more quality and sustainable full-time jobs in remote areas, rather than rely on six months a year boom staffed by foreign nationals followed by six months of silence.