Island near France offers post-Brexit migration ideas

Bloomberg

For clues on how U.K. immigration policy might work after Brexit, try looking at a small island just off the northern coast of France.
The U.K. government has studied how the British isle of Jersey —whose legislature and judiciary are still independent from the mainland — controls migration, according to local officials who met with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Cabinet Office and Department for Exiting the European Union last month. “When we described the system we have here it seemed to resonate,” David Walwyn, director of Jersey’s ministry of external relations, said in a Bloomberg interview.
“It did strike a note.”
Jersey, which is outside the EU, allows free movement of the bloc’s nationals yet controls population flows by limiting the availability of work, housing and welfare to new arrivals.
Its 228 billion pound ($284 billion) funds industry enjoys EU market access, and the island itself is just 31 kilometers (19 miles) from the French coast.
May could take inspiration from the island’s approach as she prepares Britain’s negotiating position ahead of leaving the European Union. She has said she wants to impose tighter controls on immigration while seeking maximum possible access to Europe’s single market.