Globalization: Effects on Economy, Immigration, and Technology - Essay Example

?Globalization: Effects on Economy, Immigration, and Technology Introduction Globalization refers to the process through which national economies andcultures are integrated into an international economy so as to enhance international trade, direct foreign investment, migration, and technology sharing. The concept of globalization greatly contributes to effective and rapid circulation of ideas, languages, and cultural ideologies. With intent to enhance foreign investment and cross-border trade for international business expansion nations have liberalized cross border trade regulations. The emergence of globalization can be directly attributed to the World War I & II and their serious aftereffects which raised serious ethical issues across the globe. On the basis of numerous studies, economists realized that the concept of globalization would contribute to the rapid economic restructuring of the global economic condition. In addition to the economic benefits, nations could improve their political as well technological relations globally. The last few years have proved that globalization can benefit developing countries more in achieving rapid economic growth. To be more specific, despite the possible socio-economic adverse impacts, the concept of globalization stimulates the advancement of nations’ economic stature. This paper will explore various aspects of globalization with regard to economy, immigration, and technology globally. Impacts of globalization on economies Before the emergence of globalization, developing and underdeveloped countries had little access to developed markets and improved technology. This condition negatively affected the economic growth and thereby living standards of underdeveloped economies. However, since globalization, the global economic environment has undergone tremendous changes. According to Devetak and Hughes (2008, p.34), globalization connects nations through a global network, and it assists a nation to get access to foreign markets and customers. The rampant economic growth of developing economies like India, China, and Brazil can be attributed to the fruitful trade laws under globalization perspective. As Slaughter & Swagel (1997) point out, the removal of trade barriers promote import and export activities by which a government acquires foreign investments (IMF). Often, foreign markets benefit an organization rather than domestic markets when a potential offshore country offers favorable business conditions including cheap raw materials, labor, liberal government laws, and large number of potential customers. For instance, Starbucks Coffee Company transplanted its business operation from the United States to China and other parts of the globe. The emergence of a global financial market is the direct impact of globalization, which assisted the borrowers to get better access to external financing. This external financial assistance assists the organizations to expand globally. In addition, the global interconnectedness helps nations to attract more and more investors to complete their capital accumulation process successfully. This favorable economic environment increases the volume of national and international trade transactions which would in turn boost the rapid economic development of a country. As per statistical data, “everyday more than $1.5 trillion is swapped in the world’s currency markets and around one fifth of products and services generated per year are bought and sold.” (Benefits of Globalization). Evidently the economic development of a country raises the standard of living of its citizens. The improving unemployment rates in third world countries can also be clearly referred to the fruitful impact of the globalization. The rise in people’s living standard would assist the nations to concentrate more on economic development. In the opinion of Arnold (2008, p.300), other fascinating feature of the globalization is that it can keep inflation level lower. The higher inflation rate in a country will cause dreadful issues and ultimately it will impede all proposed economic policies. Therefore, the effective strategies would certainly aid governments to trim down public sector spending and minimize troubles associated with a higher level of inflation. The excellent economic results obtained in 1980s can be attributed to the increased global trade activities. In 1986, commerce as a percentage of gross world products rose from 15% to 27% (Benefits of Globalization). Although, globalization offers numerous benefits to an economy, this concept has some limitations too. It is identified that globalization has largely contributed to economical class system. Critics are of the opinion that social class system would not contribute to country’s balanced economic growth. To illustrate, since globalization mainly meets the interests of high and medium class people, the cross cultural trade concept would generate a poor class having more requirements. In the opinion of Weissman (2003), globalization makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Since globalization provides wider market access, this situation may benefit corporate giants to exploit domestic and traditional marketers. For instance, cheaper electronic products from China have become a threat to UK and other global marketers. Impacts of globalization on Immigration Immigration is the act of entering a country with the intention of living there permanently. People migrate to a foreign country due to several reasons. The main cause of immigration is to explore new and potential economic opportunities whereas some people migrate so as to escape persecution at their home lands. However, in modern days, more people choose to relocate in order to be closer to family or to find a change of living environment. Even though the ultimate cause of immigration is not globalization, this concept has considerably increased the number of immigrants (Migration and globalization). Before the beginning of 21st century, the main intention of migrants was simply to leave home country to become a member of another country’s community. Those days, traveling from one’s home country to other foreign destination was expensive and time consuming. In addition, inter-communication between countries was also expensive. However, globalization and thereby rapid technological advancement assisted immigrants to maintain effective ties with their home countries. As reported by The University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development (n.d.), after the introduction of globalization, several countries allowed immigrants to tie with their home country. It was enabled by amending laws that contain provisions for protecting property rights of absent individuals. Some countries have also formulated laws for enabling the immigrants to be dual citizens (Immigration & Globalization). These favorable practices have evidently intensified the rate of migration across the globe. Many of the globalization supporters opine that this concept and thereby increased immigration activities would offer ranges of economic benefits to both the home country and the recipient country. As per US immigration policy (Bush & McLarty 2009), those immigrants who bring skilled labor or specialized knowledge are the valuable assets of any country since their potentials can be effectively employed to increase the productivity of the nation. In order to take advantages of skillful immigrants, nations widely liberalize their immigration policies. The globalization has largely increased the scope of innovations and this situation in turn has increased the demand for skillful and technical employees. For instance, Ice Hotel is a modern innovative concept that needs highly skilled workers for its development. Every country cannot find adequate number of employees from its own territory and therefore nations tend to keep their doors opened for immigrants. Hence, evidently globalization has played a vital role in increasing the volume of immigration. Although, the increased volume of immigration produces fruitful economic outcomes, it may seriously impinge on the developmental notions of underdeveloped countries. Since the developed countries possess a strong economic position, they can offer attractive benefits to their employees. This condition will encourage people to migrate to developed countries. Subsequently underdeveloped countries lose their potential employees. Impacts of globalization on technology The fruitful elements of globalization contributed to the development of a new technological era that restructured the living standards and business concepts of the modern world. The tremendous development in technology was the central element that led to industrial revolution. The industrial revolution notably changed the structure of families, communities, and worksite environment. The industrialization process largely reduced manual labor since the human efforts were replaced by technologically improved machineries. The increased application of technology in productive activities also augmented the volume of production. Therefore, it was necessary to employ more and more workers in order to efficiently operate machineries and other technical systems. In order to take advantages of these increased employment opportunities, population concentrated near to factories and other worksite areas. The result was the emergence of urbanization which plays a crucial role in developing metropolitan cities. It is obvious that technology was also one of the major factors that led to the emergence of globalization. However, globalization has largely contributed to the rapid technological growth. Since globalization removes international trade barriers, it has largely increased the transactional volume of business organizations. As the business transactional volume has largely increased, firms face difficulties to run their operations smoothly. The condition forced firms to develop highly improved technologies. Every business organization wishes to deliver its services more effectively and hence, it searches for further technological developments frequently. The explosive growth of information technology is one of the major outcomes of globalization and industrial revolution. For instance, the introduction of internet and related facilities has restructured the world and the way people communicate. Globalization has produced some negative effects also on the technology. As a result of industrial revolution, industries largely gravitated towards technologically developed countries with intent to minimize the cost of production. However, this activity reduced the productivity and further caused an increase in unemployment rate especially, in developing and underdeveloped countries. The increased dependence on machineries and other technical equipments has made human work insignificant. Similarly, the increased technological developments have greatly raised environmental issues such as global warming and green house effect. Conclusion To sum up, globalization highly promotes economic growth as this concept facilitates international trade transactions. Since every nation easily gets access to foreign markets, organizations can take advantages of offshore facilities. Likewise, the emergence of globalization made considerable increase in the volume of immigration. This situation will help countries to easily obtain adequate technical and professional expertise. Globalization also restructured the world of technology by promoting continuous technological innovations. References Arnold, RA 2008, Macroeconomics, Cengage Learning, US. Bush, J & McLarty, TF July 2009, US Immigration Policy, Independent Task Force Report No. 63, Council on Foreign Relations Press. Benefits of Globalization, India business directory, BusinessMapsofIndia. Com, viewed 25 May 2011 Devetak, R & Hughes, CW 2008, The globalization of political violence: Globalization’s shadow, Routledge, Abingdon. Immigration & Globalization, The University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development, viewed 25 May 2011 Migration and Globalization, Globalization 10: The Levin Institute, The State University of New York, viewed 25 May 2011 http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/Migration/migration2010.pdf Slaughter, MJ & Swagel, P Sep 1997, Does Globalization Lower Wages and Export Jobs? International Monetary Fund, viewed 25 May 2011 Weissman, R 2003, “Grotesque inequality: Corporate Globalization and the global gap between rich and poor”, Multinational Monitor Magazine, viewed 25 May 2011 Read More