An independent Scotland would let asylum seekers work and claim benefits, and introduce an expansive visa system, under Scottish government plans to arrest the country’s declining population.
A paper published on Friday by the Scottish National party-led government said the country faced an economic crisis unless it managed to attract new residents. Scotland’s birth rate is projected to fall and it has a population that is ageing faster than anywhere else in the UK.
The paper, one of a series to promote the case for independence, said Scotland needed a “humane, dignified and principled” immigration system after years of enduring increasingly restrictive UK-led policies.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish cabinet secretary for social justice, said: “For too long, Westminster governments have ignored the needs of Scotland and in fact, worse than that, [their] harmful migration policies, their really disgraceful rhetoric coming through, is impacting on our community cohesion and our ability to welcome people here as much as we’d like to.”
Although none of the policies are yet costed or have targets, the strategy, which assumes Scotland votes for independence, includes:
• An immediate right for asylum seekers to claim benefits, get paid employment and freely use the NHS.
• Closing down Dungavel immigration detention centre.
• New working visas, new five-year post-study visas and new family visas with much lower barriers than the UK currently uses.
• Rejoining the European Union to allow full free movement of EU citizens.
The Scottish government’s calls for a more inviting immigration system, particularly to tackle rural depopulation and a rapidly ageing workforce, have been broadly supported.
But housing and immigration experts say the country is facing an immediate crisis with a refugee homelessness in Glasgow the Scottish government has yet to adequately address, raising questions about its capacity to meet its promises.
Glasgow city council has warned it is on the brink of declaring a housing emergency. It emerged that the city may need to provide emergency accommodation for more than 1,000 refugees in the next few months, at an immediate cost of £27m, after the Home Office introduced a fast-track processing policy for asylum seekers.
Backed by the SNP government, Glasgow is host to one of the UK’s largest asylum-seeker populations – evidence, the party says, of Scotland’s desire to be open and welcoming.
Scotland also has more generous homelessness legislation, and the devolved government has the primary legal duty to house homeless refugees. Housing experts believe Scottish ministers have been “writing cheques they can’t cash” on housing and immigration policy.
Mike Dailly, a solicitor advocate at the Govan Law Centre who specialises in housing law, said that made it incumbent on Scottish ministers to help fund emergency housing costs, ideally with funds from the Home Office.
Somerville did not deny her government shared a responsibility for meeting Glasgow’s costs but said the Home Office shouldered the bulk of it, since the city’s housing crisis was entirely due to the department’s fast-track strategy.
She said the UK government gave local councils hundreds of millions of pounds to support the resettlement of Ukraine refugees, so there was a precedent. “We will work with the local authorities on this but the responsibility for the poor asylum process and the fact that the UK government are turning their backs on people once a decision is eventually made, is their responsibility as well,” Somerville added.
