Positive Effects of Immigration - Essay Example

This paper explores the positive effects of immigration to present an argument for immigration.

Positive effects of immigration

Immigration is a major concern in developed countries that experience an influx of immigrants from developing countries. While some of the realized immigrations are legal, other people cross countries' borders illegally. Many reasons have been offered for immigration, especially from developing countries to developed countries with economic factors such as the search for employment opportunities and better economic status as key. Varying opinions also exist over the effects of such immigration with some views against immigration because of proposed negative effects. There are however positive impacts of immigration that support opinions for allowing immigrants into a country. Immigrants are for example a source of cheap labor for the host economy.

This is major because their main reason for immigration which targets jobs in the recipient countries. Immigrants from developing countries are for example driven by unemployment in their countries and the hope of finding jobs upon immigration. Consequently, they are desperate for jobs and accept lower pay for their economic stability. The difference in macroeconomic factors between developing countries and developed countries also identifies wage rate disparity in which developed countries, normally the recipient, have higher wage rates. Immigrants are therefore comfortable with a wage rate that is considerably low in the host country but is better than wage rates in their native countries. They, therefore, offer cheaper labor and consequently lower production costs (Camarota, p. 1).

Immigrants have also been identified with higher labor input than natives have. This may also be a factor of their high utility in their work, especially for those immigrants whose main reason for moving was to get an employment opportunity. Better labor input in terms of quality and quantity, therefore, means efficiency in production and a higher quantity of production towards the higher gross domestic product. More immigrants in the labor market, therefore, translate to higher productivity in an economy. Immigration also has a general impact on increasing labor supply in an economy because the availability of labor is a factor in the total active adult population size.

Consequently, immigration helps an economy to solve its general problem of scarcity of the human resource. The trend of immigrants’ jobs in the labor market also identifies their significance concerning the types of jobs that they do. Research has for example shown that immigrants majorly occupy unskilled employments that are rarely performed by natives. They consequently fill a labor gap that would be realized in their absence. This means that regardless of reported unemployment rates in the host countries’ economies, immigration is not a factor because the majority of immigrants fit into types of jobs that are not sought by the natives (Camarota, p. 1).

The fact that some immigrants, especially legal immigrants, have skilled potential is another advantage to the host country’s economy because of the diversified skills that they offer towards consumer utility and contribution to the economy’s productivity. These categories of immigrants are however few and do not impose significant competition, in the job market, to natives. A general influx of immigrants also has social benefits for the hosts, as it allows natives to learn of and appreciate cultural diversity. Natives are therefore able to assimilate some beneficial social practices from immigrants (Shah, p. 1). Immigrants’ association with lower crime rates may also influence natives and reduce the general trends of reported crimes. United States immigrants also identify with entrepreneurial potentials and are therefore economic assets (Lazear and Marron, p. 1).

Opinions against immigration however identify factors such as increased competition in the job market, reduced wages, and a precedent to future immigration as some of the negative effects of immigration (Camarota, p.1).

Conclusion
While fears of infiltrated job markets in host countries may be true, immigrants predominantly explore types of jobs that natives do not do. Professional immigrants, though very few to impose a significant threat, are however economically beneficial. Consequently, the positive impacts of immigration outweigh its negative impacts. I, therefore, support immigration but would formulate a policy that regulates immigration to ensure a sustainable immigrant population. This would involve flexible policies to legalize more classes of immigrants subject to periodic regulations, and ensure strict implementation of the formulated policy. Read More