lThe immigration is an essential part of the life of the modern society. In the modern world, immigration keeps progressing at the unparalleled scale. As a rule, developed countries, such as the UK and the US become the target countries for millions of immigrants who are willing to abandon their native countries, stuck in poverty. In fact, it is possible to trace an obvious trend to the movement of the population from developing countries to developed ones. In this respect, it is important to underline that socioeconomic factors are traditionally determinant factors that make people abandon their motherland and move to a new, more economically developed, and, therefore, prospective country, such as the USA, for instance. At the same, the effect of immigration on the national economy and socioeconomic stability has always been under question. In this respect, it is possible to single out two controversial views on immigration. On the one hand, immigration produces a positive impact on economy of developed countries because it provides them with the stable supply of new labor force, while developed countries suffer from aging of their population. On the other hand, immigration is viewed as a threat to the local labor force and, therefore, have a negative impact on the position of the local population.
Traditionally, immigration played a very important role in the socioeconomic and cultural life of the USA. Historically, the USA was the country of immigrants because since the epoch of the foundation of the country till the present moment the flow of immigrants to the USA is unstoppable. As a rule, people moved in the USA under a pressure of socioeconomic and political factors which forced them to abandon their motherland and move to the USA, where they hoped to start a new, better life. In fact, the USA has become a kind of Promised Land for millions of people arriving from different parts of the world, because today the USA is the leading economy in the world and one of the most democratic countries in the world where human rights and liberties are protected and people can feel secure in this country, compared to countries suffering from poverty, military conflicts and political repressions.
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In fact, the immigration is the process of the movement of the population from one country to another for the purpose of settling in a new country. In other words, the immigration is arrival of people to a new country, where they want to stay for a considerable period of time and which citizenship they want to obtain. In such a way, the immigration is closely intertwined with the change of the location where people live and the change of their citizenship to the citizenship of the country they migrate to.
However, the immigration provokes heat discussions in the USA, as well as other well-developed countries. On the one hand, opponents of immigration argue that immigration undermines the socioeconomic stability in the country. The reasons are obvious – the growth of population living in poverty increases pressure on American tax payers who should support funding of education and health care services of immigrants who cannot afford paying for their education and health insurance (Smith and Edmonston, 148). On the other hand, supporters of the immigration argue that benefits from the flow of cheap labor force outweigh state expenditures on social programs for immigrants. Moreover, immigration became the main source of population growth in the USA allowing the national economy to develop steadily, while the lack of immigrants would result in the domination of the retired population and the slowdown of economic development (Smith and Edmonston, 154).
In such a context, it should be said that the negative effect of the immigration is main problem provoked by immigration is mainly related to the position of low-qualified employees. Specialists (Cooper, 211) argue that immigrants increase the competition in the low-qualified segment of the labor force market. In such a context, they deprive the poorest layers of the local population of the possibility to earn for living since the growth of the competition on the labor market inevitably leads to the unemployment, since national economy cannot always provide sufficient number of jobs to meet the existing demand. At the same time, the growing unemployment in the poverty stricken neighborhoods naturally leads to the growing social tension and increasing crime rates that undermines social stability in the country accepting a large number of immigrants.
However, proponents of immigration (Smith and Edmonston, 198) argue that immigration has rather positive than negative effects. At any rate, the positive effects of immigration outweigh the possible negative effects provoked by immigration. To put it more precisely, the population of such countries as the US or the UK is aging. This means that the number of retired people consistently outpaces the number of economically active, i.e. working, people. In such a situation, the restriction of immigration can have disastrous effects on the national economy, while the support and regulation of immigration can produce a positive impact on the development of the national economy. In fact, immigrants close the gap which emerges because of the lack of economically active population of developed countries. In addition, the cost of the immigrant labor force is lower compared to the native-born labor force. Furthermore, immigrants often create competitions in the segments where native-born employees are unwilling to get employed, since they seek for better jobs opportunities and count for higher level of income compared to immigrants.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that immigration, being quite a controversial phenomenon still has rather positive than negative effects on the economy of developed countries. The fears of opponents of immigration concerning the growth of crime and unemployment rates are not really justified, while the positive effects of immigration outweigh possible risks. In fact, today, immigration is the major source of the improvement of demographical situation and prevention of the aging of the population at the national scale in practically all developed countries. In other words, developed countries do not have alternatives to immigration to prevent aging of the population and, therefore, a profound economic crisis.
Works Cited:
- Cooper, M.A. Moving to the United States of America and Immigration. New York: New Publishers, 2008.
- Smith, J. P, and B. Edmonston, eds. The Immigration Debate: Studies on the Economic, Demographic, and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. New York: Random House, 1998.
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