---

Managed Migration

We are having those difficulties because we do not have control of our immigration policies. We have an Executive who have made sure that Scottish economic performance is way below that of the rest of the United Kingdom and of similar-sized countries in the rest of Europe. That is why we are having difficulty in acquiring the skilled migrants that we need. We need our own distinct policies to attract people if we are to deal with these problems. Will the new points-based system help Scotland to address those challenges? Scotland’s particular difficulties are acknowledged by the fact that someone would have to have lived in Scotland for only two years before residency was granted. That is half the length of time required in the rest of the United Kingdom. There is a further concession, in that a skills shortage list will be drawn up to target the skills shortages there, especially in the oil and gas industries. That is all very well, and all very welcome, but is it enough to address the chronic underlying problems? To answer that question, we need to understand how the scheme will be administered. We have heard that that will be done through the skills advisory board. A further concession to Scotland has been made in the proposal for one Scottish representative—from Futureskills Scotland, I believe—to sit on the SAB. However, that will just be one Scottish voice in a chorus of UK-wide voices. Regardless of how forceful and articulate that one Scottish voice might be, it will necessarily be subsumed into the chorus of voices representing UK-wide interests. I asked the Minister in an intervention about the future of the fresh talent initiative. That was the Scottish Executive’s response to our chronic demographic and population problems. Feeble though it was, it was all we had. It was a programme that was able to attract skilled migrant workers into Scotland. However, the Minister’s response to my intervention suggested that the fresh talent initiative has now gone, leaving us with no competitive advantage over the rest of the United Kingdom. Scotland’s population problems will therefore be further entrenched. How will the residency system work itself out? We welcome the fact that it will take only two years to get residency in Scotland, but because we have no distinct or separate immigration service, what will happen after those two years? Will people naturally slip down to London or the south-east of England? How will we be able to retain those people in Scotland after that two-year period has been concluded? Many commentators have mentioned that the new points-based system is similar to the scheme operating in Australia. In many ways it is almost identical, but with one crucial and significant difference: Australia has full devolution of immigration responsibilities to state level. States can manage their own immigration requirements and introduce policies and approaches that will help them address some of their problems. Many states, such as South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania, experience challenges similar to those faced by Scotland, but the Australian system allows those states the flexibility to control their immigration policy. Australia has recognised the benefits of area-specific migration policy for the past 10 years, and has benefited significantly from being able to control immigration policy, determine priorities and give residency status to migrants way beyond what is required for the normal Australian model. If that can work in Australia with a system of state federal government, why can it not work in the UK with devolved government? Scotland has a Parliament in Edinburgh and distinct and different immigration requirements, so why cannot it have the proper powers to address those? Of course, the most effective way of tackling our demographic problems would be to have the full powers of a normal small nation. We only need to look at Ireland as an example. With the introduction of its green card, it is building on successive decades of success in attracting migrants. We can only look at that jealously, and reflect on what could be achieved in Scotland were we able to do that. Since the emergence of the Celtic tiger economy in the 1990s, Ireland has seen a huge turnaround in immigration. My reply to the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) is that Ireland has benefited from being in charge of its economic policy and being able to determine its own agenda in terms of economic policies and prosperity.