Free Movement’s pick of the past week’s media reporting on immigration and asylum.

There has been renewed excitement about the notion of associate EU citizenship for UK nationals after David Davis said that he would “look seriously” at the idea (Sun). Our editor, though, points out that the idea is “impractical and would require treaty change”.

The Guardian claims an exclusive on the Brexit cut-off date, saying that “Britain has quietly conceded that EU27 nationals coming to the country at any point before Brexit day in 2019 will have their rights protected”. (This does sounds a little familiar: the Telegraph reported what seems to be the same story a fortnight ago.)

Legal protections are a necessary but not sufficient condition for decent treatment, of course – a point brought home by the Sunday Herald story of the “Polish migrant ‘racially abused’ by colleagues at Scots job centre after Brexit vote”.

In case you were in any doubt about whether a “no-deal” Brexit would be a bad idea, Politico‘s feature on the subject ought to disabuse you. Scroll to the end for the section on citizens’ rights.

Martha Spurrier of Liberty has an interesting angle on data protection as it concerns immigrants: “any government agency processing data for immigration purposes will be free of… data protection obligations”, she writes for Politics.co.uk.

The Chief Inspector’s reports on Home Office monitoring made the BBC News, which reports that “not enough is being done to find almost 56,000 absconded foreign nationals due to be deported”.

We noted last week that lobbying for sector-specific free movement will be a feature of the years to come. The latest example arrived within a few days, with the Scottish government’s Chief Scientist for Health warning of the effect on scientific research should barriers go up (Scotsman).

In another familiar theme, the drumbeat of harsh spousal visa decisions continue. The case reported by the i is summed up by the following quote: “they say that Gary can continue his relationship with the kids in Canada by means of ‘modern technology’”. No prizes for guessing which government department “they” refers to.

However, and as ever, credit where credit is due: Home Office training for foster carers looking after unaccompanied asylum seeking children has been welcomed by charities (Guardian).

The “notorious” Yarl’s Wood is still being used to detain victims of sexual or gender-based violence, the Guardian also says, reporting on a study by the charity Women for Refugee Women.

Finally, a third plug for the Guardian and its mention for Colin’s now famous conceit: Paddington Bear as the subject of immigration control.