Immigration

                            Immigration is a hot-button topic nowadays. But people have been immigrating since before the beginning of our species. Do modern nation-states restrict freedom of movement, or is it necessary to restrict immigration for the security of the nation and its people?

 

Immigrants

What is immigration?

Immigration is the movement of people from their native country to a foreign one to settle and live. People immigrate for all kinds of reasons. It can be political, economic, or just to change the environment. But usually, we see immigration from countries that are poor and in political turmoil to rich and stable countries.

 

History of immigration

In ancient times, our ancestors used to migrate from one area to another for a better life all the time. Even in modern times, immigration has not stopped. Immigration has a particular relationship with the USA as it is said to be a country built by immigrants. North America was first colonized by the British, Spanish, French, and Dutch. This colonization wreaked havoc on the native population. They were primarily replaced by immigrants from Europe. Institutional slavery has brought Africans to America. Though it was not immigration, they have a vital part to play in the build-up of today’s USA.

After the Mexican war, the victorious US granted citizenship to the people living in New Mexico and California. In the late nineteen hundred’s, the USA received a lot of immigrants from Germany. Jewish immigration was prevalent. Chinese immigrants came to build the transcontinental railroad in the US and stayed there. Japanese immigrants were also there at the time.

After the 2nd world war, war brides immigrated to the US from the Axis countries. In the post ww2 era, people arrived in the USA mainly from Europe, Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, and East Europe.

 

Benefits of immigration

There are some benefits of having immigration in a country. Of course, for the immigrant, there are more benefits than their previous country. Otherwise, they would not go to a foreign country. Let’s highlight the most important benefits of immigration.

·         It provides a country with more human resources.

·         Immigration enriches a country’s culture.

·         Immigrants bring new and interesting ideas to improve the lives of people.

Immigration can be a blessing for those countries with a falling birthrate. Immigrants can keep the workforce going and keep the economy booming as a result. Immigrants are also likely to differ from the native population in tradition and ideas. These diverse sorts of ideas can improve a country’s mentality and bring forth an even higher standard of living.

 

Drawbacks of immigration

But of course, like everything, immigration has its demerits too. Immigration is not right for every country. Countries differ from one another in political stability and economic opportunities. Countries that can’t support the immigrant population should not look to immigrants to solve their problems. Here are some major disadvantages of immigration:

·         Likely to hamper political stability in a country.

·         Immigrants can clash over the native population over a difference of opinion.

·         The host country might not be able to provide immigrants with a decent standard of living. Instead, the standard of living in the said country might go down as a whole.

Diverse opinions are as likely to cause problems as it is likely to birth novel ideas. If the people of a country are not ready to get along with the difference of opinions, immigration will only bring misfortune for both parties. Without proper infrastructure and social institutions, it will be near impossible to assimilate immigrants to enrich the lives of the natives and immigrants alike. Immigration is ill-suited to countries that are not politically stable. Mass immigration can only act as the fuel for political fireworks in those countries.

 

Current situation

Currently, a debate is going on in Europe and North America over immigration. Lawmakers of different parties have a diverse range of opinions on this topic. Some believe the benefits of immigration outweigh the disadvantages and others believe the opposite. Recently, Democrats in the USA are trying to overhaul their immigration process. They believe their proposal will make the burden easier on the immigrants. But they face tough opposition in Congress from both the Senate parliamentarian and the Republican party.

 

Future of immigration

In the future, more and more countries will be open to immigration. Rich western countries are already open to it. Countries like Japan and South Korea are still fairly homogenous. But their population is in decline. To stay competitive, they are starting to accept immigrants and we will see the result of it in the near future. As countries like India climb up the economic ladder, we will see immigration to those countries too.

 

                           Immigration has been going on for millennia, even before nation-states existed. But now nation-states have made freedom of movement harder. It's just one of the demerits of nation-states. But in the far future, if humankind has reached some kind of utopia, we will see immigration for the sake of it and not because of economic opportunity/political turmoil.