THE Scottish Government will publish the next independence white paper shortly focusing on migration policy, the Sunday National understands.
The sixth paper in the Building a New Scotland series is expected to outline reasons arguing why Scotland needs to take a different approach from the Westminster Government on the issue.
The Scottish Government has long called for immigration powers to be devolved, so it can attract more working-age people to help pay for the ageing population via taxes.
And it is expected the new white paper will set out how Scotland can benefit both socially and economically from migration policies after independence.
Speaking in July, First Minister Humza Yousaf said that urgent action had to be taken to reverse Scotland’s population decline and this could be achieved by independence.
“Scotland’s working population is being hit by a heartless Westminster migration system that isn’t fit for purpose, and a hard Brexit that Scotland didn’t vote for, making our population challenges significantly worse,” he said.
“I am in no doubt that alongside the climate crisis, the challenges of an ageing population are among the biggest issues future generations will face in Scotland, unless action is taken today.”
In September, the latest census figures revealed Scotland’s population had grown to more than 5.4 million, which is the highest figure on record.
However, this represented the slowest rate of growth in the UK and without migration, the population would have fallen by almost 50,000.
Responding to the figures, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson said the growth demonstrated that Scotland is an “attractive place to come to live and work”.
But he went on: “We know Scotland faces an ongoing population challenge with fewer births than deaths registered in Scotland since 2011, which reinforces just how damaging Brexit continues to be for Scotland with the loss of freedom of movement.
“The census also shows that, in line with many other countries, our population is ageing.
“As outlined in the Programme for Government, we will publish an Addressing Depopulation Action Plan, which will set out the first phase of our response to population decline occurring in some of Scotland’s communities.”
There have been five papers released in the Building a New Scotland series so far, covering the economy, citizenship, independence in the modern world, renewing democracy and the constitution.
There has been growing scrutiny by Westminster of the work of Independence Minister Jamie Hepburn, who is responsible for the publication of the papers.
However, Yousaf has hit back saying it is well within the jurisdiction of the Scottish Government to have civil servants working on papers making the case for Yes.
