Yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a proposal to devolve certain aspects of our post-Brexit immigration policy to Scotland. Well, you might say, she would say that, wouldn’t she? But Sturgeon’s argument has some merit, for Scotland has a demographic problem that is not shared by the rest of the United Kingdom. A few thousand Scotland-only visas issued each year has the potential, assuming they proved sufficiently attractive, to address that.
This is not just an SNP ploy, either. There is a widespread acceptance in Scotland that the country needs to be able to do more to attract more immigrants. On current trends, immigration is likely to be essential for the population growth Scotland is likely to need. As matters stand, there are already a serious and debilitating number of vacancies in key sectors like health and education. Agriculture also has particular needs and farming is a more important – if still relatively minor – part of the Scottish economy than the UK’s as a whole.
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