Citizenship

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

Unions and Citizens: Membership Status and Political Rights in the Scotland, the UK and the EU

Stephen Richard — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 07:04:36 +0000

Unions and Citizens: Membership Status and Political Rights in the Scotland, the UK and the EU

Primary Author or Creator

Shaw

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/26/2021 - 08:04

Additional Author(s) / Creators

University of Edinburgh

Date Published

Sat, 03/05/2016 - 12:00

Category

Independence

Type of Resource

Academic Paper

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

26pp

Fast Facts

This chapter makes use of the lenses of citizenship to explore the interaction between the two dimensions of ‘troubled membership’. It locates legal change in its broader political context and focuses on contested boundaries of polity membership. This explores the content of a possible future Scottish citizenship, and examines the formal legal membership and political citizenship in respect of both the Scottish referendum and the UK’s referendum on EU membership. The threads are drawn together in a discussion of how the EU referendum outcomes may impact upon the issue at the heart of the Scottish referendum debate, namely the ongoing viability of the UK as a union state.

More details

This chapter makes use of the lenses of citizenship to explore the interaction between the two dimensions of ‘troubled membership’. It applies a law-and-politics approach, which locates legal change in its broader political context and focuses on the contestation of the boundaries of polity membership. After setting the scene (Section 2), the chapter explores the content of a possible future Scottish citizenship regime (Section 3) and then examines the intertwining of formal legal membership and political citizenship in respect of both the Scottish referendum and the UK’s referendum on EU membership (Section 4). The threads are drawn together in the conclusions (Section 5) through a discussion of how the EU referendum outcomes may impact upon the issue at the heart of the Scottish referendum debate, namely the ongoing viability of the UK as a union state.

In the book: C. Closa (ed.), Secession from a Member State and Withdrawal from the European Union: Troubled Membership, Cambridge University Press, 2016, Forthcoming, Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper No. 2016/05, Europa Working Paper No 2016/03,

Resource Address (URL)

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2742526

Keywords

Language English

How To Start a New Country & A Short Guide To Starting a New Country

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 22:26:48 +0000

How To Start a New Country & A Short Guide To Starting a New Country

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 23:26

Alternative Published Date

August 2021