Economics of immigration - Research Paper Example

This paper highlights different theories on economic perspective of immigration, the causes and determinants of immigration and how it is going to affect the productivity and growth of the destination.Immigration is a prominent issue in many parts of the world nowadays. Around 3% of the world’s population lives outside their country of birth. Immigration is an economic phenomenon which is part of a process referred to as globalization. As immigrants move from their source country to their destination country in search of a better living, worthy lifestyle and deserving income, the lives of the people residing in the destination countries is often affected and taken for granted (Bodvarsson and Berg 2).

In the survey of 1990s, 60% of Americans thought of immigration as a bad thing and that immigration level should be reduced. After the terrorist attack on World Trade Center in September, 2001, 58% of Americans stated that they favored reducing immigration. In 2004, 61% of Americans agreed that the government was not hard on the immigration issue. Immigration is considered a big threat in every country. In 2002, when the German government recommended hiring engineers from India to fill the vacant positions of high-tech workers, the political parties opposed it and made immigrants a major issue.

They were ready to prefer children over the foreigners (Bodvarsson and Berg 5). . However, over the past decades, the issue of immigration has become prominent. Still, even now, not only economics but also people in many countries tend to agree with the fact that there should be freedom to move from one country to other; it is a basic human right (Bodvarsson and Berg 5). Immigrants are also consumers; their arrival in the country boosts demand for all factors of production, including immigrants’ own labor.

Immigrants do not give a downward effect on the wages of other nationals. A key fact to consider in this whole process is that the immigrants come with knowledge and new ideas. People are carriers of innovative ideas. This spread of ideas from one country to another is a key to economic growth and productivity in the country resulting in long-term improvements in standard of living (Bodvarsson and Berg 4). Cause of Immigration Immigrants are often attracted by higher income, better career opportunities and comfortable living conditions for their children, lower levels of tax and less discrimination.

The determinants causing immigration have been divided into four categories: -There could be negative incentives that might push people to migrate. -There could be positive incentives that might pull immigrants to the destination country. -There could be positive incentives that induce people to stay at home. -There could be incentives that cause people to stay away from a foreign country. When push and pull factors are strong enough as compared to stay and stay away factors, immigration will grow as observed in the recent decades (Bodvarsson and Berg 6).

Economic Argument for Free Immigration This is a big issue for any country in the world whether