Scotland’s Place in Europe

SCOTLAND’S PLACE IN EUROPE | 37
163. It is worth noting that in other parts of the world, Canada and Australia for
example, there are already successful examples of differentiated immigration
systems. These allow Provinces in Canada and Territories and States in Australia to
identify and address their own specific population challenges by flexing the
requirements of the national immigration system. These systems do not create
borders or barriers between provinces or states.
164. It is therefore likely that whatever the outcome of Brexit in relation to Scotland, the
UK Government will in future require to deal with different immigration
arrangements in different parts of the UK, while ensuring free movement within
the UK. However, the remainder of this chapter considers the situation whereby
Scotland is in the single market – upholding the principle of free movement of
people – and the rest of the UK is not. Chapter Four makes clear that, in such a
scenario, Scotland would require powers over immigration to be devolved.
165. People coming into Scotland from other countries – EU or non-EU – would continue
to be subject to passport and other security checks as is the case now. Scotland
remaining within the single market – and the rest of the UK not – would not change
that. It would be open to the UK Government to apply additional visa requirements
for citizens from other EU countries coming into airports or ports in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland.
166. Free movement within the UK would continue to be facilitated by the Common
Travel Area (CTA) as it is now. The CTA operates across the UK, the Isle of Man, the
Channel Islands and the Republic of Ireland. The UK Government has stressed that
the CTA pre-dates its membership of the EU and that it will continue to operate
after it leaves the EU. If the CTA can continue to operate between the UK and
Ireland, a country that is a member of the EU, with its own rules on immigration,
then there can be no reason whatsoever that it could not continue to operate
between Scotland and the rest of the UK, even if Scotland is in the single market
and the rest of the UK is not. In addition, UK citizens would continue to have the
right to live and work in any part of the UK as they do now. People living in
Scotland would have the right to free movement across the EU, while people in
other parts of the UK would not. It is suggested that domicile would be the
determinant of those rights.
167. The main issue that would have to be addressed is the prospect of people from
other European countries with the right to live and work in Scotland seeking to use
Scotland as an access route to living and working in the rest of the UK. There will,
however, be immigration rules applied in the rest of UK that will deal with that
issue, which, as the Prime Minister has set out, are likely to be based on checks at
the point of employment 60 . Anyone from outside the UK seeking to find work or
housing or access social security or public services in the rest of the UK would be
subject to whatever rules and standards of proof the UK Government decides upon.
That arrangement applies in many other jurisdictions including, as noted, Canada
and Australia.
60 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37271420