Deidre Brock MP has called for tailored immigration solutions for Scotland to tackle its differing population needs and the economic threat of a ‘hard’ Brexit. She was speaking during yesterday’s Westminster debate on the Scottish Affairs Committee’s report into the demography of Scotland and its implications for devolution.
The committee’s inquiry confirmed that, after decades of decline in population, there’s been slow growth since 2010 which is to a large extent dependent on EU nationals and immigrants who settle in Scotland. From 2000 until 2015 half of all of Scotland’s population growth is EU nationals and only 14 per cent are native-born. There are also specific challenges from an ageing population, lower fertility rate, lower inward migration levels and lower healthy life expectancy than other parts of the UK.
The North & Leith MP called for the UK Government to work with the Scottish Government to find Scottish solutions to meet Scotland’s different circumstances.
She said: “It took until 2010 before Scotland’s population recovered from the shrinkage of the Thatcher era and now there is another Tory threat to our population and prosperity – Brexit.
“With almost a fifth of Scotland’s whole population over retirement age we need the supply of young, energetic workers from the EU that is now under threat from Brexit.
“Brexit might only mean Brexit to the Prime Minister but it means a major economic threat to Scotland.
“Scotland needs welcoming immigration policies which are clearly very unlike the policies touted by the UK Government and Labour opposition these days.
“We can’t be left subject to this, frankly xenophobic, regime if we are to build the population and the economy that Scotland needs.
“We know it’s possible for the UK to have different immigration systems for different areas because it already happens; the UK runs different immigration regimes for Gibraltar, for example, for the Channel Islands and for the Isle of Man. The circumstances are not the same but the precedent is there.
“There is no reason why Scotland cannot have an immigration regime tailored to our needs even while we are stuck in the UK.
“We need to keep the door open for the free movement of the peoples of the European Union – of the four pillars of EU membership it’s the one that Scotland needs to keep most of all.”
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