Migration Within Europe - Essay Example

Migration within Europe [Supervisor Migration within Europe Introduction European citizens are free to travel and migrate within Europe. This is a result of the 1985 Schengen agreement which has helped enable citizens of countries in the Schengen area to live and work anywhere within the area. There are currently 26 participating states altogether out of which 22 are members of the EU. The EU allows free movement of citizens’ directive, which since 2004 enables the citizens of all 28-member states to move and reside freely in any of its member states. Most of the immigrants in western European countries have migrated from former Eastern bloc countries such as Poland or Romania. Elderly citizens of northern European countries also often migrate south for the better weather to countries such as Spain or Italy. There are many factors that influence people’s decision to migrate. There are push and pull factors for migrating or staying. Push factors are the reason people leave and they can include high crime rates, lack of services, environmental disasters, war, and poverty. Pull factors are what attract migrants to a particular area and these can include better employment prospects, better services, political stability, safer as lower crime rates or no war and a lower risk from natural disasters. Migration usually occurs as a result of both push and pulls factors. There are different types of migration such as economic migration, social migration, political migration and migration due to the environment. The main types of migration within Europe are economic and social migration. This is because people migrate within Europe to find employment or for a better quality of life. Wealthier EU countries such as the UK that has GNI per capita of US$ 41,680, and Germany with a GNI per capita of US$47,270 attract more migrants. These migrants mainly come from the poorer eastern European countries such as Poland with a GNI per capita of US$13,240 and Romania with a GNI of US$9,060 per capita. The prospect of employment and an improved salary are the main pull factor, which has attracted migrants from other EU counties. The migrants can benefit from moving as the can gain employment, better salary, better quality of life, improved services and experience a different culture. This can help them as they will be in a position to save some of the money and send it back to their homes. The economy of their countries will benefit as a result. Migration just doesn’t give benefits o people migrating to other countries but also to the economy of the countries from where they have migrated. Affect of Migration on Employment of Greece One of the main factors of migrating from one country to another is because of unemployment reasons. For example Greece is one of the countries where the unemployment rate is the highest. About 27.1 percent of the people living in Greece do not have jobs. It is one of the reasons why people from Greece migrate from Greece to other parts of Europe. The country has low job opportunities for its citizens. According to a report of March 2014, the country has high unemployment rate as compared to other European countries. The GDP of the country could be increased if people manage to get employment in other parts of Europe and successfully manage to save ad send money home (The Outlook for EU Migration, 2014). Not only in Greece but unemployment is rising in some of the other European countries that have led to migration in other parts of Europe. Other examples of countries are Spain and Cyprus with about 24% and 17% respectively. The working class of these countries is forced to move out of their countries in order to find jobs and look after their families. The global economic recession of 2008 has increased this trend of migration, which has forced people out to look for jobs in other European countries (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). Migration has made it possible to get jobs in other countries if the country has fewer resources to provide employment to their locals. The option available to Greece is Germany that has low level of unemployment. The unemployment rate of Germany in April 2014 was recorded as 5 percent, which was less compared to Greece. The locals of Greece have an advantage to move towards other European countries to derive the benefits of employment there. Greece has an advantage to improve its economic and social conditions of the country. The people that migrate from the country would be able to get their preferred jobs. National income of the country will increase and people will take part in the economic activities of the country (2012). However, giving jobs to foreign nationals could lead to severe consequences for the country in future. Germany for example cannot afford to give jobs to all the migrants from other European countries. It will result in excess supply of labour and the local citizens will suffer from this. The increase in supply of labour in the country will affect the economic conditions of the country where the labour force is migrating. Standard of living of the people of Germany will decline due to the availability of employees at low wage rate. The unemployment in Germany will increase due to a large supply of workers and their limited demand. The situation will be challenging for those countries that allow migrants find employment in their country. They will not be able to provide employment to their locals due to an influx of workers from other European countries. Migration will result in the reduction of quality of jobs because of the availability of employees at a low wage rate. Employees move to other countries in order to avail better salary in other countries. The country from which the employees migrate will receive many remittances from their citizens that provide services in other countries but transfer their money to the belonging country (UK Migration Controversies, 2012). European countries that have resources could provide benefits to other European countries so that they would be able to improve their overall economic conditions. There is unity in the European countries that has allowed them to migrate from one country to others and these results in stability and development among European countries. The argument is true but providing facilities to other countries could create problems for the country that might be hard to control in the future. European countries have derived benefits in the past on account of providing benefits to other countries of Europe and proved to be united for each other as they are the members of European Council. The country allowing migrants to work in their countries have an advantage to receive taxes from them. The increasing taxes from the migrants will allow them to increase their revenues. Taxes will increase the stability of the country and the standard of living of the country will improve due to the availability of resources (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). Improved Salaries Improved salaries are also one of the main reasons why people consider migrating abroad. People living in Portugal and Greece do not have the benefit to earn the same amount while living in England and Germany for example. People living in Portugal and Greece are not paid as much as other developed countries in Europe. It is one of the reasons why they migrate so that they could be paid better in other European countries. A banker living and working in England would be able to earn and save more compared to a banker living and working in Greece. England would allow the banker to earn more and spend less although some costs of living like paying rents are higher in England. However, the minimum wage rate for a banker in Greece is less than what is in England and additional to that the cost of basic commodities is much higher in Greece. The result is that a banker in Greece would even spend more by earning less compared to a banker in England (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). On comparison, the average rate of salary of employees in Greece to Belgium will be helpful in determining the difference of salary packages between the two countries. The average weight yearly salary rate of the people living in Greece is 25.685. The average weight of salary in Belgium is 58.462 per year. The records are adjusted according to the cost of living in the countries. It could be concluded that the salary package for the people of Greece is lower to the salary package in Belgium. A person could enjoy a quality life in Belgium as compared to Greece. People of Greece could improve their salaries by migrating to Belgium. European Union has provided facilities to the countries to migrate other countries in Europe if they are not satisfy with their salaries in their respective countries. European countries have opportunity to migrate to another country to take advantage of high salary in other parts of Europe (21 Bogus Arguments for Mass Immigration, 2015). The citizens could greatly suffer when migrants enter a country in order to find a job. An example of this could be seen when a Polish person earning €2500 goes to Belgium to find a job that pays better. On the other hand, A Belgian doing a similar job may earn up to €5000. When the Polish enters Belgium, he might be offered €3500 to do the task. It would help the employer save €1,500. However, the problem arises for the local who might lose his job to a foreigner. It is one of the reasons why migration is not considered too beneficial for the local citizens (UK Migration Controversies, 2012). The problem is severe for the local people those are working in the country for many years and sudden change in the salary package is unfair for them but the unity between the European countries could be maintained by the combine efforts to remove the problem of the people living in different parts of Europe. The benefits that could be derived from migration is to allow potential workers to avail the opportunities and contribute their part in the economic and social affairs of the country. Skills and opportunities to gain more must be the strategy by the country. These skills will be helpful in deriving benefits for the country that have competition in their working class people. The attitude will develop the abilities of the workers in all over Europe (UK Migration Controversies, 2012). Migration and Culture People migrate from one country to other countries to live in different culture as they have an opportunity to earn more and live a better quality life. The migrant could adopt the culture while there is an opportunity to move towards high society in other European countries. There is possibility that one has attachment with the culture of another country and migration will allow him to live in his preference culture (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). For example a person born in Germany in a Polish family might want to settle in Poland in the future as he is accustomed of all the traditions of Poland. The person living in European country likes different cultures and to adopt the culture they are allowed to move in the developed countries of Europe as there is an opportunity to do so. Geographical locations attract people to move from one country to other. They have to adopt the country’s culture and live a life according to the culture and social norms of the country. They do not have to find out the reason for migration within European countries as they could enjoy the culture that is promoted by most of the people living in different European countries (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). Migration and Standard of Living However, employment, improved salaries, education and improved services are not only the reason why people migrate to other European countries but they also do so in search of a better quality of life. Although the percentage of people considering migrating in search of a better quality life is less but it is one of the factors why people look to migrate one European country for another. One of the worst places in terms of quality of life among the European countries has been England and Italy. Quality of life is not just defined by how well the structures and building in the countries are made but by the cost of living and the ability to afford luxuries in life. In England and Italy, people find it very hard not only to afford cinema, theatre and other forms of entertainment but also branded clothes. The ability to enjoy these luxuries in life is very low in the two mentioned countries and people migrating from these two countries often go to other European countries in order to avail better opportunities in terms of their standard of living (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). Yearly, people are migrating to England and Italy in large number but they are migrating not from other European countries but mostly Asian countries where the quality of life is even lower. Majority of people migrate to England to seek education and better job opportunities and the country has lost the appeal of a tourist country. A couple of decades ago England used to be a much more desirable country to live in because of the ability to afford both necessity and luxury. Unfortunately, in the past few years especially after the global crisis in 2008 has increased not only the cost of luxurious products and services but also some of the most basic ones including petrol, dairy products, fruits and vegetables. The increase in cost of products and services has forced other Europeans to consider other European countries (Comparison of UK Benefits with those of the EU14, 2012). Since the global recession there has been a decline of people from other European countries to England and Italy because of the rising cost in local commodities. People mainly migrated to England for jobs and when there were low amount of jobs people did not find it useful to migrate in England and Italy. As a result, Germany, Norway and Netherland have shown vast improvements in terms of providing quality of life for people. Most of these countries are looking for people to migrate in their countries especially from Europe so that they could work and contribute towards the economy of the country. For this reason, Germany and Netherland have placed policies that are more tempting for foreigners. For example in Germany people are not asked to work overtime and are asked by the employers to keep a gap between their work and home life. They encourage people to spend time in leisure activities. The cost of basic and leisure commodities in places like Germany and Netherlands is low compared to England (Analysis of the Impacts of Migration, 2012). Conclusion There are several reasons for people to migrate from one European country to another. One of the main reasons is employment. The global recession has really affected some of the European countries for example Greece, Spain and Portugal. Unemployment has risen as a result of closing down of businesses leaving people with fewer opportunities. All three countries namely Greece, Spain and Portugal have witnessed loss in jobs. However, other European countries have come to the rescue. European Union allows people from one part of Europe to freely look for jobs in other parts of Europe. The facility to do so has helped many people from Spain, Portugal and Greece to migrate to other European countries like Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. If this facility to migrate were not available then people would have to survive without any jobs in their country. As a result the condition of their economies would have weakened ultimately resulting in a sudden collapse. Migrating to other countries helps to avoid any such problems. Also, migrating is not done only to find employment but to also seek for better-paid jobs. Countries like Portugal, Romania and Poland are not known to pay their employees to well. People who hold big and important jobs and who are skilful can earn much more in Germany and England compared to what they earn in these countries. Going and earning in these countries also helps them to save more money during these hard economic times. It is hard to earn and save in countries like Greece where the basic commodities are only getting more expensive every year. It has become very hard to afford even the most basic necessities in countries like Greece and Spain and people are migrating so that they could earn and save and send some money back to their families. Low standard of living has been another cause of migrating. People spend most of their time in work and even after doing that they do not get the chance to spend on commodities that pleases them. Leisure products and services are becoming expensive in different parts of Europe and the UK is no exception to that. The cost of watching the favourite sports in England, which is football, is nearly four times more than watching football or any other sports in Germany. Even after earning and saving people in England are not being able to spend money in products and services they desire. The lack of standard in living is forcing people to move from places in Europe where they cannot afford to spend money on leisure activities to other places like Germany where it is much easier to afford time in leisure activities. One other advantage of moving to a country like Germany is that it allows people to spend time on leisure activities. The government forbids businesses to make their employees work overtime. People are allowed to spend as much time as they want on leisure activities as the government believes that peace of mind is as important as putting time for work. List of References Analysis of the Impacts of Migration. 2012. [Online] London Available at: [Accessed 31 March 2015]. Comparison of UK Benefits with those of the EU14. 2012. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 31st March 2015]. The Outlook for EU Migration. 2014. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 31st March 2015]. 21 Bogus Arguments for Mass Immigration. 2015. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 31st March 2015]. UK Migration Controversies. 2012. [Online] London Available at: [Accessed 31 March 2015]. Read More