NICOLA Sturgeon has told European citizens Scotland “is as much your home as it is my home” while urging them to remain in the county after Brexit.

Speaking at a Robert Burns-themed celebration in Edinburgh, the First Minister said she understood the “resentment” at having to apply for the right to stay in the UK.

She promised the country would continue to welcome EU nationals, while announcing more funding for the Stay in Scotland campaign, which has supported more than 4000 EU nationals with their settled status applications since its launch in April 2018.

Under the UK Government’s settlement scheme, EU nationals can be granted either settled status or pre-settled status for those with less than five years’ continuous residence in the UK, or reject the application.

Sturgeon acknowledged the additional £10,000 from the Scottish Government “is not a massive amount of money” but could make a “real, tangible difference”.

Expressing “profound concerns” about the settled status scheme, Sturgeon said the additional money would help people with their applications by enabling organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland to “handle more referrals of complex cases”.

“People look at what’s happened over Windrush, they look at the hostile environment that the UK Government created, they look at some of the rhetoric around UK immigration policy and it’s understandable that they feel concern about their future here,” she added.

“This event today gives me the opportunity to say again to every single person from another country, from Europe or further afield, who has chosen to come and live in Scotland: Thank you.”