6 Jul 2016, Irish Times.

The UK is unlikely to impose Border controls following vote to leave the EU, professor says

The common travel area between the Republic and the UK is likely to remain post-Brexit, but the status of the Irish in the UK may need to be reviewed, according to a migration expert.

The primary reason for the durability of the common travel area between the two jurisdictions is the view of the UK authorities that it is impractical for the land Border to be an immigration frontier, according to Bernard Ryan, Professor of Migration Law at the University of Leicester.

Prof Ryan, a graduate of UCD who has studied the history of the immigration arrangements between Ireland and the UK, said one result of believing that the land Border could not be an immigration frontier has been unionist support for a common travel area.

Immigration frontier

This is because they would not like to see the UK impose controls on journeys between Northern Ireland and Britain, which is the only alternative if controls along the land Border are considered impractical. (Controls between the islands of Ireland and Britain were imposed from 1939 to 1952.)

The social and economic connections between the Republic and the UK are another reason for maintaining the common travel area, as is the free movement of labour that it has allowed for.

Prof Ryan said that studies in the archives he did some years ago when researching the common travel area convinced him it was the UK’s view that trying to impose an immigration frontier between the Republic and Northern Ireland was impractical.

This prevented a “more normal” arrangement being developed between the two jurisdictions in the period since 1920.