Scottish MPs Report on Benefits to Scotland of Continued Migration

The views of many in the regional government of Edinburgh seem to contradict the majority of opinion in Scotland which favors ending freedom of movement with Europe.

Members of the Scottish Parliament have insisted the country should have a separate immigration policy from the rest of the United Kingdom after it leaves the European Union, arguing that ending freedom of movement would negatively impact the country's population growth.

READ MORE: SNP Lawmaker Says UK Government May Push Scotland Toward Independence

The leader of the Scottish Affairs Committee that authored the report criticizing Westminster's current aim of reducing overall immigration to the UK to the tens of thousands per year, Scottish National Party MP Pete Wishart has called for immigration policy to be further devolved among the UK's regional governments.

The report claims that much of Scotland's current and projected population growth is currently made up by immigration rather than by natural growth.

The crop is now beginning to rot in the field because there's not the availability of Labour to harvest it. This is a key recommendation in our immigration report. https://t.co/rpZKmHOsY5

— Pete Wishart (@PeteWishart) July 11, 2018

​London is currently engaged in fraught negotiations with its regional parliaments over how many executive powers currently exercised by the EU should be given to the constituent nations of the UK and how many should return to Westminster. Currently the majority of such powers under debate relate to agricultural and environmental laws.

Despite the majority of Scots voting to remain in the EU in 2016 as well as the SNP's more pro-immigration policy stance, polling conducted over the past two years since the referendum has registered a majority in Scotland that believe immigration to the country should not be more liberal than with the rest of the United Kingdom.