Devolving Immigration Powers

Dr Eve Hepburn set out three levers for differentiating the UK’s immigration system in a paper for the Scottish Parliament’s External Relations Committee in April 2017. Soft levers such as migrant integration, awareness, and education help ensure migrants stay, but they don’t address the need to allow migration into Scotland. Mid-range levers include working with the UK Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to create a Scotland-specific Shortage Occupation List (SOL). In practice, the variations in the Scotland-specific shortage list have been limited and only address perceived temporary skill shortages. Scotland has long-term demographic challenges that will not be addressed quickly. Temporary systems also do not encourage a high level of integration.

Hard levers would involve devolving exclusive competencies over immigration on the Canadian or Quebec model – even if that is within an agreed framework of regional visas. The main criticism is the risk of leakage of migrants to other parts of the UK. The international evidence in the Hepburn Report shows that high retention rates can be achieved. Scotland is not an isolated, low-wage, underdeveloped nation comparable to regions in other countries that have sustained lower retention rates. There is a good quality of life, a developed economy and a generally welcoming population. While we need to do more on these issues, these factors favour the higher retention rates we have seen internationally – as high as 90% in Quebec. Contrary to the claim by the Tory leader, enforcement is not complex, given the development of Scottish income tax codes. There is also the issue of asylum seekers who are not allowed to work until they gain refugee status. Scotland’s 5,080 asylum seekers include highly educated and skilled individuals who want to contribute economically to Scotland. The country is losing out on up to £264 million a year by refusing to allow these migrants to work.