The Incorporation of Immigrants in Growing Urban Areas - Essay Example

The Incorporation of Immigrants in Growing Urban Areas Department The Incorporation of Immigrants in Growing Urban Areas Every nation in the world experiences migration. It is estimated that about three percent of the world’s population currently live outside of their country of origin (Skandalis 2012). In different urban areas immigration has had different impact that depends on factors such as culture, gender, education, religion of both natives and immigrants, and immigration policies of the host country. In some countries immigrants have been seen as a boost to development but in some they has been considered hindrance to progress of by the natives and as a result have been used as scapegoat to problems. This has also led to discrimination and racial segregation when it comes to certain privileges. Immigration has been used as a means to human right violation and slavery in certain parts of the world yet in certain areas human rights have been observed with the best effort. While the phenomenon immigration has existed for centuries, it was after the Second World War that immigration started gaining momentum. This was due to factors such as religious conflicts, political instability, and economic constraints in their countries of origin. Migration has led to changes in how countries shape up in areas such as education, economy, culture, and even social life. The new environments that migrants experience present diverse challenges which have led them to adapt in different ways. In Greece, for example, the Cold War made natives flee their country which had a poor economy, in search of better life in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and other more developed counties (Skandalis 2012). However, after the Cold War and with the fall of the communist era in Eastern Europe, Greece became an attractive place for immigrants from Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and other less developed countries in Eastern Europe. Other immigrants in the country came from outside of Europe, from India and Afghanistan. This had a huge impact on the economy and society of Greece. What was once a homogenous society became a culture and linguistic mosaic. The immigrants managed to deal with barriers such as confusing legislation and unfriendly entrepreneurial climates to become farmers, construction workers, and employees in other sectors, overwhelming even the natives (Skandalis 2012). This led to Greece experiencing a transformation in regard to its occupational structure. Occupations such as manufacturing and small trading that characterised the traditional family are on the decline. On the other hand occupations such as salaried clerical work and sales, are on the rise. (Arapoglou and Sayas 2009). Integration Immigration has been the key to economic development, social change, and population growth in many nations, especially Canada and the United States of America. The two countries have a long history in relation to immigration. Issues such as immigrant settlements and integration are of great importance to legislators, business and civic leaders in these nations. such leaders must work toward fostering social cohesion. in the case of immigrant, social cohesion is thwarted by factors such as discrimination. (Teixeira and Li 2009). In spite of factors that could lead to immigrants from different parts of the world to interacted with the natives, they tend to find people from their own countries to enclave with. This type of settlement offers opportunity for support security and familiarity. In the United States, immigrants in places such as Orange County tend to form homophile relationships, as opposed to engaging in relationships with people from other counties. This they do because they seek those with whom they share interests. One immigrant group in Orange County comprises people from Taiwan. These people commonly work with non-immigrant ethnic groups at the general community level by participating in charity events and local festivals but hardly show any real participation in church activities and sports activities organized by non-immigrants. According to Avenarius (2009), immigrant women tend to be more interactive compared to their male counterparts. Besides ethnic enclaves, illegal migration is also a hindrance to integration of immigrants in the United States. One of the issues highlighted by Earner (2010) in his study that featured immigrant mothers in New York is lack of awareness regarding vital services offered by different service providers. Earner notes that many immigrant women who have found their way into the U.S. with no proper documentation fear being exposed to the government and therefore have no interest in getting some vital services from service providers owing to their multiple identities. Earner recommends that policy makers should carefully evaluate the policies that they make as they make negatively impact on immigrants and hamper their successful integration in the new environment (Earner 2010). Immigrants in France just as in US have also experienced challenges to do with integration. The French immigrant integration model was applied in France to integrate African children in the French society several decades ago. The French immigrant integration model has two important aspects; its belief in the success of individuals that rejects multiculturalism and the belief in secular type of education that seems to free an individual giving them the ability to succeed on their own. Young people from immigrant backgrounds in France often dropped out of university before earning their degrees as a result of the discouragements they encountered. There was a lot of discrimination in the job market. The rate among European students stood at about ten percent, compared to non-Europeans who had a dropout rate of fifty nine percent. Duprez (2009) cites figures from a survey conducted in 1994 that showed that most young people of Magrebin (Moroccan) background had a hard time to find employment as compared to their European counterparts. The experience of discrimination and unemployment by young people from immigrant background led them to engage in strikes and civil unrests. The author points out that Marseille was one of the few cities not affected by the strikes. This is because the discrimination and unemployment were low in the city as compared to the other parts of the nation (Duprez 2009). Germany just like France has experienced immigration in the past. However there are striking differences in experiences of African immigrants in France and Turkish immigrants in Germany. While there were a string of riots in France there were a few unrests in Germany. This is because while in France there is social exclusion especially towards those of Magrebin origin, there is much less of this in Germany towards those of Turkish origin (Loch 2009). In theory, the French model stresses political integration of individuals, but practically it controls immigrants post colonially. On the contrary in Germany, there is a policy developed to integrate the minority. Another reason is that in France recognitions of social cultural and religion is prevented by colonial backgrounds and republican values (Loch 2009). Just like there is a difference between immigrants from different backgrounds residing in different countries, so there is a difference between immigrants of the same background residing in different countries. Policies in different countries can either lead to immigrants holding on to conservative values or take up liberal values, for instance, as seen among Turkish immigrants in Germany, Netherlands and France (Ersanilli 2012). In relation to whether or not teachers should wear headscarves, for example, Turkish immigrants in are more supportive while those in France show least support. Immigrants tend to take up policies and political systems in the countries they reside. Yet the support for increased number of Islamic schools did not follow any political pattern (Ersanilli 2012). General public opinion shape the immigrants religious views as opposed to the opportunities offered in political systems. Though integration policies do not seem to cause effects on the new citizens, resident country has an effect on immigrants. Though Turkish immigrants in Germany, France and Netherlands are more conservative than the natives of these countries, they are more liberal as compared to those in turkey (Ersanilli 2012). Education The population of immigrants has an effect on the performance of students in schools. According to a research conducted in Sweden, if a school is densely populated with immigrants there tends to have a high dropout rate. There is also a higher chance of the students choosing theoretical subjects as opposed to practical subject when they enter upper high school. This translates into a small but significant negative effect on the socioeconomics of a nation. The ethnical composition of a school has about five percent effect on the grades (Urban 2009). Immigrants who were born aboard seem to have high rate of unemployment and low income earning as compared to natives in Sweden. This is explained by an increased demand on educational skills for jobs, leading to increased rate of unemployment by immigrants. Racial discrimination in labour market is seen as a more important cause of segregated housing composition and housing market discrimination. Compared to discrimination, structural changes of cities and demands for skilled labour are less in importance (Urban 2009). Education of immigrants also extends to other areas such as their willingness to study the local language of the host country. Immigrants make the decision to learn the language of the host country only if the benefits received from learning the language will be greater than the cost of acquiring the language (Beckhusen, Florax, Graaff, Poot and Waldorf 2013). This also determines areas where immigrants live in foreign countries; those who are fluent in the language of the host country live in areas where the host language is predominantly spoken, while those who are not fluent tend to benefit from areas where their local language is dominant such as enclaves of immigrants. Areas with high ethnic concentration reduce the ability of an immigrant to learn the host language. In America though this is less seen in Mexicans it is more dominant in Chinese. In a household, the presence of an English speaker increases the fluency of an immigrant. The impact of presence of adults who speak language of the host is four times more than that of children especially among the skilled. Yet among the unskilled, children have more impact (Beckhusen, Florax, Graaff, Poot and Waldorf 2013). Gender Gender and age are crucial to understanding individual experiences and communities and households take shape diversely with reference to desires and expectations of individual members. Gender and age are explained as common determinants to migration and mobility despite the context (Tacoli and Mabala 2010). Men seem to be able to make reasonable decisions based on choices, this is usually not the case with women. Women tend to argue that if their access to resources such as land is made available they would have no reason to leave. Vulnerability of women who migrate is increased as they tend to send home a better part of their income as compared to men, this leads to them for example living in accommodations that are cheap and they even forgo health care to send remittance home (Tacoli and Mabala 2010). Factors such as non-agricultural employment can lead to reduction in poverty but this does not deter migration as there are other factors that lead to migration. Power inequalities lead male immigrants to look for fulfilments elsewhere but still be able to fulfil their responsibilities in households. Another contribution to gender immigration is social acceptance. This is not achieved by younger women leading them to look for acceptance in other societies (Tacoli and Mabala 2010). Gender also plays an important role when it comes to job type selection. Among the Chinese immigrant population in San Francisco, segmentation is gender and job skills. The concentration of men is more towards knowledge and capital based occupations that are better paying, have better working conditions and more upward mobility. Women, on the other hand, tend to concentrate on semi-professional occupations such as clerical, service related and industrial jobs. With such facts the work geography and home geography have a significant relation to job segmentation process (Wang 2010). For immigrant minorities whose language culture and financial barrier most of the time reduces the choices in the housing market, spatial effects of arrangement are very important. They will tend to areas that are ethnically dominated, or in areas concentrated by more than one ethnic group (there ethnic group alongside another). This has a major influence during employment as they start their job search in such areas, this leads to concentration of cheap labour in one area. Labour is segregated along gender, ethnic and racial lines (Wang 2010). Human Rights Violation Though in some areas the fate of immigrants has hugely depended on factors they carry along with them such as gender, culture, education and religion, in other areas their fate is more in the hands of the natives. Some of these influential factors include systems that natives have put in place when dealing with immigrants. In the Arab world there is a system of employment called Kafala which tends to encourage a lot of right violation of the migrant domestic workers (MDW) by their employers. The infamous abusive madam and the male employer who is a sexual predator are once again highlighted. The fact that the migrant worker must have a Lebanese sponsor creates major dependency as they will rely on their sponsors for most of the things they need such as accommodation. Again for the employee to get the sponsorship they must depend on the agency for this. This is usually done at a fee which the employee is not told reasons for the fee. This fee is paid by the MDW with every single bit of their first three months salary. This further enhances dependency as the employee for three months looks up to the employer for survival. Worse still is that immigration authorities and agencies encourage dependency by directing the employers to confiscate workers passport and monitor their movements. The kafala system is a means of violation of rights as the employers use the dependency as a way of disciplining and controlling the employee. Besides it creates an environment where violations go unpunished as the employee has no right for lawsuit without the employers consent. Consent from employer is also needed in case the employee wants to change employers as the employee is declared illegal the moment they leave their employers. This gives more powers to the employer over the employee that creates a slaving and master relationship between the two. This system is a means of human trafficking (Pande 2013). In same way human trafficking and slavery exists in Lebanon disguised as an employment system, in Saudi Arabia such a system exists. Employees are deceived into contracts that sound lucrative yet enslaving. Agencies do not allow potential employees to read their contracts before leaving their respective countries; instead they are expected to sign their contracts upon arrival at their destination of work (Vlieger 2012). The potential employee is also expected to pay a non returnable fee that covers one Way ticket as the employer is expected to pay the return ticket (Vlieger 2012). There is no clarity when it comes to weekly off days and working hours, in the contracts there is no specifications in regards to such. Employees are subjected to unspecified number of hours of work that goes up to seventeen hours per day with no off. During months such as Ramadan immigrant employees are not given enough time to sleep and they opt to run away (Vlieger 2012). Freedom of movement is violated as employees are not free to leave their employers residents without permission within their period of contracts. Confinement of the employee is further worsened by the reality that most employers confiscate the employee’s travel and identification documents. This takes away employees freedom and identity (Vlieger 2012). Though in other parts like Saudi Arabia and Lebanon work relationships have been used as means to human rights violation in other parts of the world such as in the US it is marriage relationships that lead to violation of human rights especially those of immigrants (Earner 2010). Immigrant women from Mexican origin who are married experience abuse in their relationships. These they experience without attempt to seek help from outside or even break away. Reasons for them not seeking help from other areas outside marriage include such as threats of deportation, fear of shaming the family and also being labelled as disloyal (Earner 2010). Mexican Women feel that the state has a role to intervene in abusive situation but what keeps them from seeking help from the state is the fear that the state will not support their role as a mother. One common feeling is present among these women; they feel that being a mother is very important as it makes you somebody while being a wife makes you belong to somebody (Earner 2010). A lot of Mexican women confess having seen their close relatives being physically assaulted by men, yet they feel that this is a part of marriage life and the only way to escape it is to marry a man that cannot beat a woman. It is also to be noted that the police was accused by the women for not playing their part in solving such conflicts and at times would even subject the victim to further humiliation. This creates a general feeling that reporting such cases to the police is useless (Earner 2010). Economic influence In as much as rural to urban migration is rampant in many parts of the world, urban to rural migration may play an important role in the development of communities that are rich in cultural amenities as noted by Chipeniuk (2008). Some of the tools for encouraging amenity migration include advocacy, the establishment of citizen juries, symposia, and citizen identification and negotiation of amenities. Encouraging amenity migration demands good planning according to Chipeniuk (2008). Good and effective plans that encourage amenity migration are those that take into account the views of different stakeholders including community members. To understand urban rural migration there are factors that need to be taken into account. One such factor is the relationship between migration and cost of housing. New migrants tend to be attracted to areas where there are with low house pricing trends, this leads to lowering of estimations of city levels. Another factor that leads to lowering of city estimations is the existence of a larger aging population as it tends to lower the housing prices and also attracts migrants especially those who specialize in taking care of the elderly. According to Acceturo, (2014), a 10 percent increase of migrants which is considered as the average annual immigrant increase, would lead to a five percent increase in housing prices. They further highlight that in cities where immigrants settle, price growth tend to be slower. An increase of ten percent is noted to decrease the local prices by two percent that affects other amenities such as transport. What determines this effect entirely is the impact of immigration on how satisfactory the natives find local amenities especially in areas where immigrant population is dominant. In summary, in areas where migrants settle, there seem to be a deterioration of amenities such as housing, transport among others (Acceturo, et al 2014). To better understand migration from rural to urban areas three policies can be put to light; transport policy that is meant to improve transportation, entry cost policy that is meant to encourage investments within the city and restricting migration policy that leads to cost imposing on immigrants. According to research findings, such policies tend to have effect on job creation that is positive in urban areas while reducing the same in rural areas (Zenou 2011). When the local authority reduces transport cost by increasing subsidies, the land price reduction is experienced all over the city. When land prices reduce, this encourages investors. Increase in investors lead to increase in employment. Reduction of commuting cost makes job places more easily reachable as the low cost for transportation encourages mobility when looking for jobs (Zenou 2011). This significantly lowers the cost of living within the city for migrants hence the city experiences an increased flow of migrants. An increase in commuting subsidy leads to improved employments in the urban areas. Improving of infrastructure in the city leads a significant positive impact on employment in urban areas despite the results of migration from rural areas (Zenou 2011). Diversity plays a pivotal role in an urban center’s economic performance. Entrepreneurs, skilled migrants, and unskilled workers are very important to every economy. Immigrants’ contribution in an economy is massive, not just due to their talents and abilities but their social connections as noted by Eraydin Tasan-Kok and Vranken (2009). Social capital is important for immigrants’ survival and integration into a recipient countries economy with less reliance upon formal institutions. With their attempts to integrate into the economy, they fill gaps in employment or at times become entrepreneurs. This process of integration is not easy as they must work hard towards it (Eraydin Tasan-Kok and Vranken 2009). While some make it to the higher levels of social ladder; attaining higher levels of education and even get better employment opportunities some end up not realizing such achievements adjusting into the new social, cultural and economic environment (Eraydin Tasan-Kok and Vranken 2009). When immigrants make it to the higher scale, in most situations the natives are usually not happy. According to Kaya and Karakoc (2012), nations that have their borders more open to trade tend to have more anti-immigrant prejudice. This means that on a global scale workers tend to direct their frustration towards immigrants. This is based on the notion with the argument the current globalization in international trade hurts workers as it leads to the collapse of traditional labour group found in developed countries. It also leads to increased exploitation to workers in developing countries. Unemployment has a major input on anti-immigrant prejudice in nations with a big number of immigrants. Anti-immigrant prejudice seemingly comes out of globalization and not from the existence of immigrants. This is in line with claims that people tend to exaggerate immigrants as they are used as scapegoat when the issue of unemployment becomes serious. There also seem to be a major effect due to interaction between unemployment and international trade, as countries with high level of unemployment also seem to have high levels of integration to the global trade (Kaya and Karakoc 2012). Immigration is a fact that no country in the world can ignore as it has major effects on every country. These effects are social, economical, educational and cultural. Integrating immigrants into their new society should be taken more serious as the faster and better a country does this the more the benefits. It is also best to avoid conflicts in terms of riots that arise from discrimination towards immigrants. This is also to avoid immigrants being used as scapegoats by natives whenever issues such as unemployment arise. Discrimination when it comes to employment has contributed to immigrants dropping out of academic systems as they have been discouraged. The willingness by immigrants to learn the language of the country they live in depends hugely on the relationship between the benefits gained from learning the language and the price to be paid to learn. Gender among immigrants plays a major role when it comes to selection of job careers. Women seem to go for semi-professional positions with fewer benefits as men target the very top of the job group. Immigrants have experienced human right violation especially in the Arab world. This is due to the employment systems that are in existence in such regions. Immigrants’ religious stands are influenced to a slight extent by the society in which they have adopted. References Accetturo, A. Manaresi,F., Mocetti, S., Olivieri, E. 2014. 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