Nicola Sturgeon demands new Scottish visa category
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has called for Scottish “visa” system – separate from the existing UK model – to encourage immigration.
Sturgeon, who is also the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), has requested that appropriate powers be devolved to the Scottish parliament (also known as Holyrood) in order to facilitate the creation of the new visa category.
Sturgeon’s call is significant inasmuch as it represents limited and qualified devolution of immigration powers and control to the Scottish government in Edinburgh. Hitherto, all immigration powers in the UK reside in Westminster and the government in London remains strongly opposed to devolving these powers.
Sturgeon’s Scottish visa request is in keeping with the SNP’s manifesto for the December 12 general election which called for a “tailored migration system” to meet Scottish “demographic needs”.
This was a thinly-veiled reference to Scotland’s ageing population and shrinking workforce. In October 2019 the National Records of Scotland (NRS) released its latest future projections indicating that deaths could outweigh births over the next 25 years.
In addition, the NRS predicted there will be 240,000 more pensioners by 2043, a 23.2% increase.
The SNP-led Scottish government has consistently argued that the declining birth rate – and by extension the long-term demographic threat to the Scottish economy – necessitates grater inward migration.
However, Sturgeon’s latest request for a new visa category falls short of a fully sovereign immigration power in so far as the British government in London gets to security check all visa applications and therefore has the final say.
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