(Economic, Political and Social Effects of Immigration)

Introduction:

Immigration has become a common point of discussion with various concerns over it. The host and source countries have been concerned about the increasing rate of immigration. As the people move across borders, the countries face certain effects which may be extremely costly in the end. As such, countries and their leaderships have come out to challenge immigration as they consider it inappropriate. The host and source countries experience extensive social, economic, and political effects out of the immigration activities affecting specific nations.

Economic Effects:

Immigration affects the economy of the host country through negative influence on the labor market. The labor market is defined by elements such as wages and employment level, which are often affected by immigration. The natives of the host country usually face economic challenges linked to salaries and employment opportunities. They are forced to settle for lesser payment as the immigrants are willing to be paid below the set minimum wages (Drinkwater et al. 06). As a result, companies settle for the employees who they consider affordable. In most cases, they do not consider the natives because of the demand for higher wages. In the end, the natives would lose jobs or be forced to settle for lower wages to fit the market demand. Since the adjustments are gradual, the effects may not be felt immediately, but they may be long term impacts as the number of immigrants grows. However, the effects in the short run will be negligible but should serve as a warning of the effects that the country may have to withstand in the long run (Edo et al. 04).

Immigrants would influence the economy of the host country if they come with skills that complement the skills of the existing citizens. The labor market benefits from the existing of a range of skills that complement each other. Possessing different skills helps a country to undertake major activities and engage in different kinds of businesses because there is adequate labor to support the activities. High-skilled immigrants become an asset to the host country since they are fundamental in driving the country’s development. However, low skilled immigrants are threats to the economic development of a country since they come with the skills that are readily available in the market. As a result, they may not have a significant contribution. They become a burden to the economy since they make an insignificant contribution to its advancement or growth (Kerr and William 06).

Equally, immigration affects public finances and social benefits of the citizens of the host country. In most cases, economic and social factors of a country are dependent on each other. As such, the value of public finances would be reflected through the social benefits that members of a community receive. When a country experiences high immigration levels, the public finances may be constrained. The country would have to spend the available finances against high population resulting from immigration. In the end, the community does not access the appropriate finances to support them in their endeavors. Social amenities are constrained because the population being served is higher than the resources. Host countries have complained of the constrained social amenities because they may not have accounted for the impact of the immigrants who may have to be accommodated by the available resources (Portes 13).

Trade is another fundamental economic element that has been influenced by immigration following the influence on the relationship between countries. Trade is a major influencing factor for the GDP of a country. As countries interact, they exchange resources through trade. Therefore, with the easier movement of the people across borders, countries are likely to gain value through trade. Successful trade is a significant element to the attainment of a successful economy. Therefore, through immigrants trade would have a major influence on the economic activities undertaken or practiced in certain countries. Understanding the value of immigrants and building relationships between the host and source countries would be a fundamental principle to realizing excellence.

Political Effects:

Also, source and host countries of the immigrants experience major political issues as different parties try to find a wider perspective on the relevance of the issue. Politics is built by the issues that affect the people or the ones that would compromise the wellbeing of the country. Immigration affects the source country since it loses its human capital to the host country. On the other hand, the host country is concerned that it may incur a burden to accommodate the new entrants. As a result, political division in the two countries would arise as different parties seek an explanation on the relevance of immigration and why it is accepted amongst society members. The host and source countries would have to adhere to major challenges, which would result in politics around the immigration topic. The situation would compromise a country’s stability and influence how people perceive and treat immigrants (Mayda and Giovanni).

As a matter affecting the country, immigration attracts different political views and positions. People differ in terms of the policies and decisions that have to be passed to handle immigration. The differences may arise from different political camps in the host and source countries. The political differences are likely to create an imbalance in the affected countries as the parties struggle to implement critical issues that would affect the immigration patterns. The political divisions in the different countries are likely to paralyze operations in the specified areas. It would mean that immigration concerns could be a major source of distress in the affected countries. Focusing on political issues would reduce the relevance of economic and social activities, thus affecting the balance between the elements of public interest (Massey 31).

Immigration becomes a brand for specific political leaders as they get known of their positions on the subject. Some leaders who wish to defend their position would not be willing to change their positions on major issues such as immigration. They take the positions believing that they would defend it to bring sanity to their society. However, it has not always been the case since some parties have been branded negatively for their strong positions or stand on a certain matter (Mayda and Giovanni). Political leaders get known of specific forms of behaviors which create a line between them and others in the same country. In most cases, such political positions are meant to ridicule instead of coming up with similar stands which would help in solving the issue at hand. It would lead to conflict between the people and may easily conflict the willingness to serve the nation by eliminating the risks or negative values that could be involved (Lodigiani 02). The negative branding in politics may make it difficult to develop suitable solutions to address immigration in the country.

Social effects:

Globalization is the largest social effect that may come as a result of immigration. It means that immigration opens up the world for interactions. As the people move from their countries to other regions the people in the host country seek to move to other areas. As a result, the world gets open for movement by the people. They move from one country to another since there is no barrier and they find it pleasant. In the end, globalization may become an advantage or disadvantage to the people of the source or host country. Globalization is advantageous when a country can reap benefits through the integration of the people and the availability of better human skills. It would also be an advantage if it creates an opportunity for global peace. On the other hand, it may be disadvantageous if some countries do not seem to experience any value from the immigration activities despite the rate at which they occur. Globalization would increase the population in a country, which may be dangerous to the welfare of society (Tuccio).

Equally, immigration influences the population and may affect the distribution of resources amongst the society members. Mostly, governments allocate resources depending on the population size of a certain place. As the population size of a certain area changes, it is upon the government to take charge and determine the amount of resources that it would have to allocate for the area. Social amenities are distributed depending on the value that the government sees in an area through the size of the population in the region. In most case, the government works with the data of the people who were born and raised in the specific region meaning as population increases because of other reasons such as immigration the government may not be responsible. It would mean the existing social amenities would be overused and may lead to dangers of an unsatisfied population (Edo et al. 08).

Lastly, immigration may interfere with cultures as people from different regions interact. Different countries have different cultural values and practices, which would be affected if the parties are allowed to interact without any form of control. Immigration opens doors for continuous interactions between members of cultures from different countries (Tsapenko 445). As a result, they share opinions and perspectives on certain social issues and they are likely to infect each other with the cultures. As a result, people transfer their cultural values and practices to the areas that they visit, which positions some of them at a compromising situation because they may come across certain cultures that are extremely strong (Noja et al. 897).

Conclusion:

Under immigration, the host and source countries experience extensive social, economic, and political effects out of the immigration activities affecting specific nations. The effects are usually intertwined but the impact of each is felt at a specific level. The economic effects experienced through the influence on the country’s GDP, trade activities, and human capital. The elements are may be affected by population growth or reduction. Also, political factors are influenced as nations from different political perspectives on the issues at hand. The government and the opposition may differ on how to handle the immigration subject. Lastly, social effects include unsustainable populations in certain areas leading to constrained social amenities. People from different cultures are likely to influence each other negatively affecting their productivity.

Works Cited

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Edo, Anthony, et al. The Effects of Immigration in Developed Countries: Insights from Recent Economic Research. No. 5. ifo Institute-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, 2018.

Kerr, Sari Pekkala, and William R. Kerr. Economic impacts of immigration: A survey. No. w16736. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.

Lodigiani, Elisabetta. “The effect of emigration on home-country political institutions.” IZA World of Labor (2016).

Massey, Douglas S. “The political economy of migration in an era of globalization.” International migration and human rights: The global repercussions of US policy (2009): 25-43.

Mayda, Anna Maria, and Giovanni Peri. “The Political Impact of Immigration: Evidence from the United States.” 2018. <https://www.cato.org/publications/research-briefs-economic-policy/political-impact-immigration-evidence-united-states >

Noja, Graţiela, et al. “Migrants’ role in enhancing the economic development of host countries: Empirical evidence from Europe.” Sustainability 10.3 (2018): 894-926.

Portes, Jonathan. “The Economics of Migration.” Contexts, 18.2, (2019): 12–17.

Tsapenko, Irina Pavlovna. “Social effects of immigration.” Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences 85.5 (2015): 443-452.

Tuccio, Michele, Jackline Wahba, and Bachir Hamdouch. “International Migration: Driver of Political and Social Change?.” (2016). < http://ftp.iza.org/dp9794.pdf>