Before looking at immigration pros and cons, it is important that we first define what immigration is. Immigration refers to the movement of people between countries. Immigration expresses the freedom of movement which is guaranteed constitutionally as a civil right. Immigration today can be taken to mean the long term stay of an individual in a non native country. Many immigrants cross country borders searching for better opportunities in terms of careers and education. Many immigrants pursue business growth therefore their main intention is making money.
People can also immigrate in search of better living standards, exposure to other cultures and to
experience new things. Others can immigrate out of lack of a better option. For instance, victims of war
immigrate because of safety reasons. Also, personal reasons such as family relocation, marriage can also force someone to immigrate. Immigration laws guiding the migration process are meant to control
immigration. There are a number of immigration pros and cons discussed below.
Pros of Immigration
Among the most common pros of immigration is economic growth. Most immigrants succeed economically and also contribute to the economic growth of the countries they migrate to. This is because immigration opens up individuals to the global market. It usually gives immigrants a global perspective towards many things. For instants, most U.S immigrants enjoy economic and social growth enjoyed by American citizens. This helps them to widen their development scope. With numerous new opportunities in terms of education and careers, immigrants are more likely to experience economic growth. Many supporters of immigration have a strong believe that it bringing out global prosperity. Many immigrants have been successful in their businesses abroad and achieved a better standard of living which shows that immigration can be advantageous.
Cultural Exchange is another pro of immigration. Immigration helps individuals exchange cultural values. This is because it helps in the exchange of expertise and knowledge between nations. Immigration allows people from different cultural backgrounds to interact. This interaction is helpful in terms of creating global unity.
Immigration is also advantageous in that it helps in creating new career and educational avenues. Immigration creates new opportunities for individuals who were once marginalized. It allows people to be exposed to the atmosphere that is different from their motherland. This way individuals can be able to pursue different educational avenues and careers. Immigration allows for nations to share and also exchange knowledge which is necessary for promoting professions that are popular in one nation. This helps in opening new educational fields and career opportunities.
Immigration also helps in distributing population. In most cases, immigration helps in the fair distribution of populations. Distribution of population is vital in ensuring that overpopulated nations that are scarcely populated receive balanced population. Most third world countries are overpopulated which strains the natural resources available. Immigration helps in distributing populations so that places with ample resources can share with the rest.
Cons of Immigration
In the discussion of Immigration Pros and Cons, of course, immigration also has its disadvantages. One thing not so good about immigration is population imbalance. For instance, too much immigrants in a country can result in crowding. Population imbalance mostly occurs when immigrants flock one area of a country too much compared to other parts. The problem with imbalances is that certain regions resources may be over exploited which is not healthy.
Immigration may also lead to the transfer of diseases. Many diseases in the world are spread by immigrants. Diseases like SARS, AIDS and polio are among the diseases that have been spread around the world by immigrants. Disease causing agents are transferred from one country to the other through immigrants who come into contact with locals before being treated. Because of the spread of airborne diseases such as SARS, many countries today screen all immigrants that arrive in their country in airports, train stations and other terminals to ensure that they have a clean bill of health. Aids is said to have entered the United States in the late 1960′s through an infected immigrant from neighboring Haiti.
Another con of immigration is the unfair distribution of wealth. Most analysts assessing immigration pros and cons find unfair distribution of wealth to be a critical problem caused by immigrants. They argue that immigrants take a huge chunk of the jobs set aside for the citizens therefore causing an increase in unemployment rates of citizens. Immigrants force a government to distribute resources unfairly as resources and property is channeled to cater for their needs. This is not right because immigrants are not entailed to enjoy a nation’s wealth at the expense of genuine residents. Immigration therefore leads to financial burdens such as the provision of resources like health facilities and education to immigrants leaving the citizens starved. Immigration experts have argued before that the economic contribution of immigrants is lower compared to the costs the host government incurs when providing immigrants with necessary resources. The financial burden on the host country is usually higher than the gains from economic contributions made by immigrants.
Immigrants may also cause numerous malpractices. For instance, most immigrants are less educated compared to the citizens in the host country. Most of them therefore end up engaging in theft, violence among other malpractices causing the crime rates to rise. In the U.S for instance, most black and Latino immigrants have been associated with all kinds of crimes. This is because most of them are uneducated therefore they engage in criminal gangs as a way of surviving. Immigrants also pose a risk to the national borders. Terrorists usually use immigrant routes to enter countries as seen in the U.S in September 2001. Illegal immigrants have therefore proven to be a curse because they pose security risks to nations.
Immigration also causes brain drain. Brain drain happens when immigrants flock a country when they are unskilled to seek education. They study and acquire knowledge from the host country and once they are done, they leave and go back to their motherland. The U.S suffers from brain drain very much because most of its immigrants go back to their motherland after been trained in the U.S.
Overview of Immigration Pros and Cons
In summary, the immigration pros and cons balance out. Many may argue that immigrants drain resources from a country while others may argue that they provide cheap labor. Whichever way we look at immigration pros and cons, immigration should be controlled.
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