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Options for Differentiating the UK's Immigration PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK Options for Differentiating the UK’s Immigration System Dr Eve Hepburn | Prepared for the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee Contents Convener’s Foreword 1 Dr Eve Hepburn Biography 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 7 PART 1: THE CONTEXT 11 Scotland’s Immigration Needs 11 Demographic Profile 11 Scotland’s Labour-Market Needs 13 Public, Political and Civic Attitudes to Migration 15 The UK’s Points-based System 17 The Scottish Government’s position: Scotland’s Place in Europe 18 Comparative Best Practice – Lessons from Abroad 19 Australia 20 Canada 30 Finland/Åland 41 Spain 44 Switzerland 54 PART 2: OPTIONS AND LESSONS FOR SCOTLAND 63 What immigration options are available to substate units? 63 Category 1: Soft Levers: devolved activities 63 Category 2: Mid-range levers: influence and cooperation 66 Category 3: Hard Levers: sharing and devolving new competences 69 Lesson-drawing: Implementing Options in Scotland/the UK 70 Scottish Migrant Integration & Reception Policies 71 Scottish International Outreach on Immigration 75 Increasing Scottish influence in UK decision-making 78 Creating Scottish sectoral agreements 82 Scottish administration of work permits 86 Options for Differentiating the UK’s Immigration System Dr Eve Hepburn | Prepared for the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee Scottish visa sponsorship scheme 88 Intergovernmental Relations 91 Scottish Immigration System – Control over Selection 94 Annexe A Research Interview Questions 106 Immigration Policy – Territorial competences 106 Immigration Policy – Intergovernmental Relations 106 Capacity and Finance 107 Retention and Enforcement 107 Replicability of this model 107 Annexe B List of Acronyms 108 Options for Differentiating the UK’s Immigration System Dr Eve Hepburn | Prepared for the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee Joan McAlpine MSP, Convener of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee The Committee commissioned this research following the publication of its report into EU migration and EU citizens’ Rights. That report provided strong evidence of the importance of EU migration to Scotland and the contribution that EU citizens have made to the Scottish economy and Scottish society. Moreover, EU migration since 2004 has contributed to reversing the decline in the Scottish population and in increasing the number of people of working age in Scotland. The evidence that we collected in that report showed that the demographic risks for Scotland of a reduction in the number of EU migrants are more acute than for the UK as a whole. The Committee therefore concluded that there had to be a bespoke – or differentiated – solution for immigration policy in Scotland in the future. This compprehensive report prepared by Dr Hepburn examines a number of different immigration models in Europe, Canada and Australia. It then draws on the evidence collected to propose a series of ways in which an immigration policy could be developed to respond to Scotland’s demographic and employment needs. I am extremely grateful to Dr Hepburn for the work that she has carried out for the Committee: this report provides a wealth of information in the various case studies that she presents and many lessons that can be drawn about how to attract migrants in the future and support their integration into Scottish society. Joan McAlpine MSP Convener Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee 1 Options for Differentiating the UK’s Immigration System Dr Eve Hepburn | Prepared for the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee Dr Eve Hepburn Biography Dr Eve Hepburn is a policy consultant, academic and social entrepreneur. She is Managing Director of Policy Scribe Ltd, a policy research consultancy focussing on immigration, devolution and European policy. Prior to this, she spent 15 years working in academia. At the University of Edinburgh, she was Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations (2012-16), Founding Deputy Director of the Academy of Government, Director of the Master of Public Policy, and Director of the Executive Programme in Public Policy (2010-14), Senior Research Fellow in Politics (2007-10) and Director of the MSc Multi-level and Regional Politics (2008-9). Prior to this she was Research Fellow in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen (2006-7) and Founding Coordinator of the Scottish Policy Innovation Forum (SPIF) (2006-7). She received her PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and MA from McGill University, Quebec. Dr Hepburn is a leading expert on immigration and migrant integration, European integration and substate policy-making in the UK, Europe and North America. She has authored nine books and over 40 refereed articles in international social science journals on these subjects. She has won research funding from organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Leverhulme Trust, the British Council, the Carnegie Trust, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for Canada. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of British Columbia, McGill University (Montreal), University of Cagliari (Sardinia), University of Prince Edward Island, Aland Islands Peace Institute (Finland), and the Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany). Dr Hepburn has provided expert testimony and evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations on migration and the EU (2015) and Scotland’s international strategy (2015), the Scottish Parliament’s Devolution (Further Powers) Committee on the permanence of the Scottish Parliament (2015), the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee on the draft Scotland Bill (2015), the Scottish Parliament Meeting of European Clerks from devolved legislatures on substate engagement in Europe (2014), the Canadian Privy Council on constitutional implications of the Scottish referendum result (2014), the Sardinian Government on re-drawing its special statute (2014), and the Aland Parliament on devolution lessons from Scotland (2010). Dr Hepburn is currently Founding Director of Fearless Femme CIC, Co-Director of WomenBeing CIC, Associate at 3rd Horizons, Trustee of the Articulate Hub Cultural Trust, and Associate Editor of Scottish Affairs. She was previously Co-Convenor of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group on Federalism and Regionalism (2007-13) and Co-Editor of the journal Regional & Federal Studies (2007-12). 2 Options for Differentiating the UK’s Immigration System Dr Eve Hepburn | Prepared for the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee Executive Summary This report has been commissioned by the Europe, Culture, Tourism and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament to explore options for differentiating immigration policies for Scotland following the UK’s departure from the EU. It follows on from proposals made by the Scottish Government for powers to be devolved over immigration to enable “greater flexibilities on immigration for different parts of the UK.”1 The aim of this research is to scrutinise proposals for devolving immigration policy in the UK through a deeper exploration of the opportunities, challenges and consequences of pursuing different immigration models in a post-Brexit landscape. The report draws on a wealth of comparative evidence to determine ‘what works’ elsewhere, before engaging in a lesson-drawing exercise to consider ‘what might work’ for Scotland. Scotland’s Demographic Profile The first part of this report begins with an exploration of Scotland’s demographic and labour-market profile, to determine the extent to which Scotland’s immigration needs differ from those of the rest of the UK. This analysis finds that while Scotland’s population is growing, this is at a slower rate than the rest of the UK due to low levels of fertility, an ageing population and lower levels of net in-migration. Moreover, in contrast to the rest of the UK, Scotland’s recent population growth is largely due to immigration. While natural causes are projected to account for 10% of Scotland’s population growth over the next decade, immigration is estimated to account for 90% of this growth.2 Scotland’s reliance on immigration for population growth has important economic implications. Migrants have become a significant part of the Scottish labour force, meeting demands for low-skilled labour (with particular concentrations in hospitality and catering, agriculture and food processing) as well as addressing sector-specific shortages for highly skilled occupations. Any future decreases in immigration to Scotland would likely create skills shortages and difficulties in recruitment to specific sectors. There is broad consent across Scottish political parties, businesses, trades unions, employers associations, universities, charities and NGOs that immigrants make an important contribution to Scotland’s society and economy, and that future immigration flows should be preserved, if not moderately increased in some sectors. However, as immigration is reserved to the UK government under the Scotland Act, Scotland currently has no influence over UK decision-making on migration flows. The current Points Based System (PBS) acknowledges the occupational needs of Scotland through a Scottish-only Shortage Occupation List (SOL) for tier 2 migrants. However, while useful, the Scottish SOL has been viewed by the Scottish
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