I'm pleased to say that we don't seem to have quite the same obsession in Scotland with keeping immigrants out as a lot of people in the UK. In fact the SNP is rather keen on encouraging immigration.
I'd far rather have the right to live and work anywhere in the EU than be trapped in the UK with Boris Johnson as PM running second hand UKIP policies.
Kinda like a trademark, actually. One has to "defend" a trademark in order to keep it, which can either take the form of an overeager legal department, or you can just find all the people who are using your trademark and give them explicit permission to do so with the caveat that you may rescind that permission at your discretion (like Hormel did with the word Spam).
You should have a read of the Daily Mail.
https://www.gov.uk/working-abroad, "You have the right to work in any country in the European Economic Area (EEA) without a work permit if you’re a UK citizen."
So presumably you'd vote No to maintain this right and stay in the EU? I'm confused as that seemed contrary to the rest of your comment.
Parts of the UK could easily be overwhelmed by open borders with the rest of the Schengen Area. Perhaps Scotland will fair better, maybe it's less attractive to migrants. What is certain though is, with a Yes vote, that unless the rUK vote to become part of the Schengen agreement there will need to be border controls between Scotland and the Common Travel Area (CTA).
This is nonsensical scaremongering. The UK's refusal to join Schengen keeps out a handful of illegal migrants, most of whom would be caught and deported anyway. If the far greater number of French[1] and Eastern European migrants who live and work here courtesy of the EU's "free movement of labour" clauses haven't "overwhelmed" anybody,[2] then a few extra illegals are hardly going to tip the balance.
[1] - Oddly, nobody ever complains about the huge numbers of French migrants to the UK. It's almost as though there's an element of racial discrimination somewhere...
[2] - Boston, Lincs. is often cited as being overwhelmed by Eastern migrants. But even the BNP can only find an uptick in driving offences to complain about: http://www.bnp.org.uk/news/regional/stop-press-boston-crime-...
The SNP proposed plan is to encourage skilled workers (from outside the EU) using a controlled points-based system. That's quite a different policy position to the EU where EU citizens can freely live and work in any EU country. I doubt many people in the UK would object to the skilled immigration policy the SNP proposes. But, of course, we need workers of all skill levels. I agree that the rhetoric from the UKIP and Conservative party on this subject (and the toxic British Press) is often alarmist and inflammatory.
Perhaps what Stross is intimating is that we'd be better off if Wales was Wales, Normandy Normany, &c, and that instead of the church, we devise some more sensible extranational force to implement the social contract across all those small nations.
At least the EU was able to reduce that somewhat in some places. Sure, the outer border of the EU is horrific, but inside it’s at least somewhat ok. A world with borders is an evil and oppressive world. We should always work towards removing them all for everyone.
(Yes, I know about Schengen and the differences between Schengen and the EU. However, be assured that Schengen would not exist without the EU. It’s just that achieving consensus is hard, so some want out of some things and some want it. That’s why it’s always so complicated and hard. EU is a convenient shorthand, because I don’t just mean visa free travel, I also mean being able to live and work in other places.)
It also raises questions like, if I can live and work wherever I want why should I only be able to vote in one fixed arbitrary place?
I know there are practical issues in the way that prevent abolishing borders. I know this won’t happen quickly, probably not during my lifetime, probably not in a couple centuries, but working towards a world where this is possible seems like a worthwhile goal to me. Why should people be arbitrarily bound to the place they were born? It’s insanity and highly unethical.
Why? I'm in favor of more open borders than most nations have, but I don't see a moral imperative to let outsiders in.