EU nationals raise concerns
This week, Ochil and South Perthshire MP Tasmina Ahmed Sheik and I hosted a public meeting where all EU nationals living in Perth and Kinross were invited. It was a packed meeting with stories of real heartbreaking concerns about what might happen to those who have come to call Perthshire their home.
The UK Government has still not guaranteed the rights of EU nationals to remain in the UK following our departure from the EU. The UK Government has refused to do this until they secure reciprocal rights for UK citizens living in the EU, effectively rendering EU nationals as bargaining chips in their negotiations on leaving. Now, let’s put aside the fact that Scotland wanted nothing to do with this chaotic Brexit, creating such insecurity in people who feel like innocent victims in this decision is just simply appalling.
Outside the large cities, Perth and Kinross has about the largest number of EU nationals in Scotland. They work in every sector from our National Health Service, to our berry farms, to our academic institutions. Our local economy would simply grind to a halt without their contribution. Quite simply they are welcome and indispensable in Scotland and we should simply refuse to have their status undermined or questioned because of this Tory Brexit.
At our meeting we listened to German and Irish nationals discuss whether they should apply for UK citizenship to protect their children’s status. We listened to real life testimony asking why the UK would do this to them? I am pretty certain that the UK Government will get round to guaranteeing their status in the UK only because not doing so would be so extraordinary and bizarrely punitive. If we don’t let these EU nationals stay the only other option is to deport the 173,000 EU nationals who live in Scotland. Something even this immigration obsessed government couldn’t even countenance.
But where EU nationals will almost certainly be allowed to stay in the UK they are now questioning the type of UK they will be allowed to stay in. Immigration was the cold beating heart of the debate about Brexit. The clear message from the UK is ‘we are leaving the EU because of our concerns that led to you being here’. It is not exactly the most accommodating of messages. Many EU nationals are therefore wondering‘if we are so unwelcome why should we stay’?
In Scotland we therefore have got to say that EU nationals are welcome. That their contribution is appreciated and valued. Lastly we have to stress that the UK’s Brexit is not Scotland’s Brexit. This is why we want our nation to choose. We can be dragged out of the EU against our will or we can decide to make our own relationship with the EU. It is a choice Scotland must have. Pete Wishart says the UK government is wrong to use EU nationals as Brexit bargaining chips