No aspect of immigration is devolved to Northern Ireland. London controls it all.

That includes everything you might expect – border security, visa rules, treaty obligations – plus much more you might not. Quotas and wages for migrant workers are set nationally. The entire asylum system is run by the UK Home Office using accommodation supplied by private contractors. Immigration offences, including illegal working, are policed by Home Office staff rather than by the PSNI. Even crimes associated with foreign gangs tend to be policed by UK-wide agencies.

Asylum seekers granted refugee status and visa holders granted indefinite leave to remain become entitled to benefits and social housing on the same terms as British and Irish citizens. Those entitlements are devolved in theory but not in practice. Stormont cannot treat lawful residents differently to citizens under equality laws written into the Belfast Agreement and the Windsor Framework.

So Northern Ireland’s politicians are effectively spectators in the great political issue of our times. There is little they can do beyond setting tones and striking postures.

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