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The UK is not a part of the Schengen Area, which is the thing that lets EU citizens travel freely without passports etc. So the UK still maintains its own border control, meaning exiting the EU would not affect immigration all that much. |
Well, no, the argument is that the UK cannot control its EU migrants due to EU regulations. It's not to do with free movement without a passport. We cannot, for example, adopt a point based system to deal with EU immigration like we can with non-EU migrants due to particular regulations. The thinking is that the UK would be able to make the decisions necessary to deal with the issue of immigration which they cannot currently. I mean there's going to be several arguments on either side debating this point. On the radio earlier someone was arguing that despite our apparent control over non-EU migrants the figures are slightly higher than EU migrants.
Also you don't need a passport to travel from Northern Ireland to the Republic because there literally is no physical border. There are no stops or checkpoints. You can simply drive South until you start seeing road signs in Gaeilge. The concern would be that Brexit would possibly lead to an actual physical border of sorts or disrupt the free movement between both countries.