Immigration

How to manage Scotland's borders

Stephen Richard — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 15:14:35 +0000

How to manage Scotland's borders Stephen Richard Thu, 10/28/2021 - 16:14

Author or Creator

Common Weal

What will happen at Scotland's borders?

Will there be a hard border after independence?

First of all, there is no such thing as a hard border and there is no such thing as a soft border. All borders are varying degrees of 'hard' and 'soft' depending on who and what is crossing them, how they are crossing them and when they are crossing them. Think of borders as about degrees of friction. At the moment the border between Scotland and England doesn't have much friction at all (the laws changes, some regulations alter, but not much more than that). After independence that border will generate more friction, so the question is how to minimise it.

So will there be border checks?

A 'border check' is about identifying whether goods or people comply with rule changes at either side of a border. If Scotland has different rules for the regulation of products or different customs arrangements (let's say we wanted to regulate pesticides differently than the UK or join a European customs union) then making sure that imports meet those rules will require checks. Remember, even when Britain was a member of the European Union people and goods would arrive through borders from outside the EU and they all had to be checked.

Do border checks mean queues of lorries at the border?

It isn't right to call them 'border checks'. For goods they are customs checks and for people they are immigration or passport checks. No-one does customs checks at the border – there are stop-off points where checks are done well away from the border and some of them may be at the final destination. For example, it used to be the case that the customs and duty checks for the whisky industry were done at the distilleries where there were permanent customs offices. Generally there is only a sample of goods taken and this is handled with modern technology such as number plate recognition. Much of the regulation of goods is monitored at final destinations. So no, no queues at the border.

What about people?

It is almost certain that both Scotland and the UK will want to negotiate a UK free travel zone and so there is likely to be next to no friction on cross-border travel. Naturally there will be border checks at international ports and airports but on the Scotland-England border there will be 'smart border' arrangements to enable people to move freely.

But won't this mean each country could create a 'back door immigration route' to the other?

It is likely that an independent Scotland would soon have different immigration rules from the rest of the UK. But the political sensitivity about immigration is the right to housing, social security benefits, public services and to work. None of these are border issues and so the UK safeguards on all of these issues will remain in place (for example, the legal right to work monitored by employers). Immigration routes will be at the international ports and those will have a full passport check system.

So how do we go about proper customs checks?

This should be seen as a major opportunity – the UK is currently very lax on customs and the Customs and Excise Service has been run down over many years (in favour of immigration controls). Scotland needs a proper Customs and Excise Service and this will need to be built up. This service serves a number of functions – to make sure taxes and duties are being paid, to prevent smuggling, to make sure product standards are being maintained, to tackle organised crime and to prevent human trafficking. Building this service will mean a series of specialised offices across the country, hiring and training staff and building a fleet of intercept ships to police Scotland's water (working closely with both the police and the Scottish Defence Force). This is the norm around the world and Scotland will simply be catching up with good practice.

Keywords

Who gets to be a citizen and how do you set up immigration rules?

Stephen Richard — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 14:33:29 +0000

Who gets to be a citizen and how do you set up immigration rules? Stephen Richard Thu, 10/28/2021 - 15:33

Author or Creator

Common Weal

Who gets to be a citizen and how do you set up immigration rules?

Who becomes a citizen of an independent Scotland?

This is two different questions. Citizenship laws can be changed by different governments when they are elected once Scotland is independent – but there needs to be a way of defining who is a citizen at the point of independence. Anyone who has UK citizenship and is habitually resident here would get automatic citizenship – as will any of their children when they are born (even if only one parent is a Scottish citizen). Anyone who has a parent or grandparent who is eligible to be a Scottish citizen would not have automatic right to citizenship but an automatic right to apply and this could start during the transition process to independence. This could also apply to migrant workers currently in the country and students studying here at the point of independence – but that is more of a policy decision. Some initial rules would need to be set for the naturalisation process for those who applied before a post-independence government was elected (at which point all these decisions would pass to the Scottish Parliament).

What about immigration?

While this is a domestic policy matter that would be handled by whatever governments are elected after independence, there shouldn't be a period where immigration is impossible so the infrastructure of an immigration system and a base-level process of naturalisation should be in place to ensure continuity.

What about Scots' current UK citizenship?

This can't be decided by Scotland alone but Scotland would allow dual citizenship for anyone who wanted it – subject to the UK accepting that.

So what would happen for citizens?

The National Insurance Number is the de facto 'citizen identifier' for the UK but it is a UK number and so can't be used to identify Scottish citizens. So all the new Scottish citizens would be provided with a Citizen Identifier, a number which is unique to them which they can use in a manner similar to the way they currently use a National Insurance Number. They would also get to apply for a Scottish passport . There is an international standard for passports so there is no real complication in making passports universally accepted.

Keywords

Public attitudes towards migration in Scotland: Exceptionality and possible policy implications

Stephen Richard — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:40:47 +0000

Public attitudes towards migration in Scotland: Exceptionality and possible policy implications

Primary Author or Creator

David McCollunm

Stephen Richard Fri, 09/24/2021 - 17:40

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Beata Nowok, Scott Tindal, Scottish Affairs Volume 29, Issue 1

Alternative Published Date

2014

A Scottish Approach to immigration post-Brexit

Stephen Richard — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 16:39:36 +0000

A Scottish Approach to immigration post-Brexit

Primary Author or Creator

Mark Butterly

Stephen Richard Mon, 09/06/2021 - 17:39

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

November 2017

Category

Migration

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Devolving immigration and employment law together can give Scotland the opportunity to create a workers rights-based approach to immigration post-Brexit that benefits all workers.

This paper proposes a devolved immigration policy for Scotland that would be designed to meet the country’s specific demographic challenges while strengthening universal rights for all workers.

More details

The prospect of Freedom of Movement ending in 2019 has particularly severe implications for Scotland. Due to a combination of a lower birth rate and slower economic growth, Scotland is more dependent on migration generally than the rest of the UK. Many in Scotland have disagreed with the UK wide consensus on immigration. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said earlier this year that Scotland should offer “a welcoming hand and an open heart to those seeking a better life or wanting to make a contribution here.”

Post-Brexit, politicians’ at Holyrood have called for the investigation of a bespoke immigration policy for Scotland. It is therefore possible that Scotland may have a devolved and separate immigration policy. It is necessary therefore to explore the options that have been put forward to date, and offer analysis of the strengths and weakness of the various proposals. Brexit offers Scotland the opportunity to rethink and reimagine its immigration policy and reflect on the rights that all people living here deserve. Even if Brexit had not taken place there are many areas of immigration and workers’ rights in need of serious reform. The rights of all migrants living in Scotland must be advocated and campaigned for.

This paper will discuss the following points:

• Shifting the debate on migration
• The grounds for a Scottish immigration policy
• The policy proposals put forward to date – values and limitations
• The quest for a broad and universal rights-based approach to immigration and workers’ rights

The author’s intention is to make a case that migrants are not the cause of numerous social ills in the UK or Scotland, but rather xenophobia towards migrants has been stoked and fed by many as a diversion to dealing with the real causes of the UK’s crisis. The aim is to challenge popular narratives about immigration as a necessary prerequisite to advocating a universal rights-based approach to a devolved Scottish immigration policy; shifting the debate from being one about migrant workers versus ‘native’ workers to one about expanding universal workers’ rights for everyone. This would be beneficial for migrants as well as the country as a whole.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/A-Scottish-Approach-to-immig…

Keywords

Language English