Scotland could control its own migration after Brexit: minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Scotland may try to wrest control over migration as part of a new enhanced devolution deal once Britain leaves the European Union, Scotland's minister for EU negotiations said on Friday, October 14, according to Reuters.

Britain's vote in June to quit the EU has put renewed strain on the 309-year union between England and Scotland, barely two years after a referendum in which Scots rejected independence.

Scotland voted in the June 23 referendum to stay in the EU, while England voted to leave, partly due to concerns over large-scale immigration from other EU countries. British Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to launch the two-year legal process of Brexit by the end of March 2017.

Immigration is one area where the British government has leeway to accommodate Scotland's different economic and demographic needs within a new constitutional set-up, Michael Russell told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference of his Scottish National Party (SNP).

"Free movement of people, technically, is reserved (for the national government) but actually it's vitally important for us," said Russell, charged with trying to ensure that London respects Scottish interests in the Brexit negotiations.

"You don't need a hard border (between England and Scotland), you just have to make sure that people don't have the same entitlements on one soil and on another," said Russell, a pro-EU minister in the devolved Scottish government in Edinburgh.

Scotland, the sparsely populated northernmost part of the UK, says it needs immigrants to shore up its economy and boost skills in remote rural areas. The pro-independence SNP has criticized May's government for trying to limit immigration.