Treasury says Scotland needs 500,000 migrants over next 20 years

The Treasury says that Scotland would need about 500,000 migrants over the upcoming 20 years in order to balance the worker group and pensioners like UK.

The latest analysis done to evaluate the fiscal position of independent Scotland between 2016 to 2035/36, the Treasury considered five key areas out of which the implications on migration levels and ageing population is one.

The net annual migration levels required in an independent Scotland to achieve dependency ratio equal to that of UK over the next two decades were considered by the Treasury. As per the calculation by the Treasury, independent Scotland must have to treble its rate of net annual migration rate in order to match with the UK statistics.

The dependency ratio is defined as the total number of people who are receiving from the state against the number of people who pays the tax to state.

The Treasury said that as part of the UK, Scotland’s net immigration is assumed to be 7000 which should rise to 24,000 under independence to attain dependency ratio equivalent to that of UK.

In order to meet the needs of the Scotland, which include improving the working age population, the government of Scotland has already specified in its white paper on independence that it is planning to adopt various immigration policies to those of UK.