Putting Families at the heart of Family Visa Policy

Conclusion

1. Scotland has distinct demographic and geographic needs, including a falling birth rate, an ageing population and geographical imbalances. These challenges are driven by Scotland’s historical legacy as a nation of out-migration. It is only since the start of this century that Scotland become a nation of in-migration with a growing population. However, this is projected to change.

2. Scotland’s first national Population Strategy, published in March 2021, sets out these challenges thematically alongside a range of work which is being delivered by Scottish Ministers to address these challenges and harnessing opportunities. As part of this, the Scottish Government’s Ministerial Population Taskforce has committed to making Scotland as attractive and welcoming as possible, along with ensuring Scotland is the very best place to raise a family. Family migration policy has a key role to play in facilitating both of these objectives being met.

3. In order to tackle these demographic challenges, Scotland needs people to live, work and raise families here. Family migration has a key role in supporting people who have a right to live in Scotland to bring their families here. Yet the current minimum income rules make it more challenging for people to bring their families here and are contrary to Scotland’s interests.

4. People in communities across Scotland have family members living overseas. The Scottish Government considers that it is right that people should have the opportunity to travel and to experience living, working and studying overseas. However, it is also important for those individuals to be able to return to Scotland. Yet there is a risk that the minimum income threshold requires individuals to choose between their family and living in Scotland. This cannot be right. Family Visa policy should place the wellbeing of the child at the heart of its approach yet the current minimum income requirements often work directly against the best interests of the child.

5. People who are entitled to live in Scotland, both international migrants and UK citizens, should be able to bring close family with them and migrants should have access to services and support to encourage integration into communities.

6. Where migrants are enabled and supported to bring their families with them, they are more likely to stay here in the long term and to settle within our communities. An immigration system which met Scotland’s needs would be designed to encourage this outcome, for the long term benefit of families and the communities within which they reside.

7. Our rural and island communities in particular are adversely impacted by current family migration rules. Many people employed within these areas will fail to meet income thresholds required for family visas, and will therefore not be permitted to bring their families with them.

8. The original rationale for the introduction of a minimum income threshold was that an individual’s right to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of their family life needed to be balanced with the need to safeguard the economic wellbeing of the UK. Yet there is no evidence that the current rules are safeguarding the economic wellbeing of the UK. It is also difficult to argue that the current position reflects any balance since it is based purely on an arbitrary financial threshold, a threshold which raises significant equalities issues.

9. The Scottish Government does not consider that there should be a minimum income requirement in place for those individuals who have a right to live in the UK. If there was a desire to retain a minimum income threshold then urgent action should be taken to significantly reduce the current level. Any increase in the minimum income threshold as proposed by the previous UK Government should be resisted.