Discussion of the Number of Migrations in the World With Specific Reference to the UK - Essay Example

A DISCUSSION OF THE NUMBER OF MIGRATIONS IN THE WORLD WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO UK The number of migrants in the world has more than doubledsince 1975. Discuss, with specific reference to UK The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines migration as the movement from one country, place, or locality to another. Furthermore, immigration has been delineated as entering and usually becoming established; especially to come into a country of which one is not a native for permanent residence. In his Journal (Journal of Population Economics), Timothy Hatton of the University of Essex, says 'Since the 1970s Britain has gone from being a country of net emigration to one of net immigration, with a trend increase in immigration of more than 100,000 per year.' (Hatton T., 2005). Moreover, according to reports from the Office of National Statistics the net migration into UK was roughly 189,000 between mid-2005 and mid-2006. Also, the overall migration in to the UK since 1994 has been estimated to be in excess of 2 million people. These staggering figures all point to the fact that the negative net migration is contributing hugely to the population expansion in UK. There are numerous reasons for this. One view claims that this is a direct consequence of the respective immigration policies in the UK and outside it and is hence a consequence of a choice made by the policymakers. However, migration demographics gathered from other countries seems to contradict this theory and suggest that in addition to the UK immigration policy, this is more due to the economic forces working silently behind the scenes.1 Hatton summarizes in his paper that relative income, immigration policy and inequality all have a role to play in the inducement to migrate to or from UK. However, he wraps up his paper by saying that patterns of unemployment and relative income have a comparatively smaller impact on the migration of UK when compared to UK inequality and relative policy disparities between UK and rest of the Europe in specific and rest of the world in general. This has huge implications on the UK economy and on UK as a whole. To emphasize this point, a researcher stated: At the current rate of population increase in the UK (which is mainly because of the high net migration but also because of increasing life expectance and fertility), a city the size of Birmingham must be constructed every two and a half years in order to meet the growing needs!' Apart from the obvious problems of over-population and lack of space in the society, a huge negative immigration can have many other consequences to the common Britisher. Sir Andrew Green, the Chairman of Migration Watch UK said on the November 4th, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times; 'Failure to act now will mean that our society will be changed beyond recognition - and especially our cities. London is one-third immigrant and half of all babies born there have a foreign parent. Other large cities will follow. According to one academic study, the ethnic community in Britain will grow from 9% to 29% by mid-century. There is every reason for concern. The Commission for Racial Equality's final report spoke frankly about growing segregation and of our society "fracturing", with bonds of solidarity across different groups weakening, and tensions between people increasing. These are serious warnings. The Commission Racial Equality was in denial about the role of mass immigration in all this but the rest of us can see it clearly.' (Sir Green A., 2007, Sunday Times). Putting this fact aside too, other problems such as the cheaper immigrant labor being absorbed into the workforce while one million (according to independent studies) laborers who would like to work but cannot do so because certain laborers are charging below the market rate for their services emerge. However, it is apparent that there must be certain advantages of having a high number of immigrants into the economy. For example, the injection of foreigners into the economy means that they can do those things which Britishers cant. They add new dimensions of skills into the economy which is an expected and beneficiary consequence of an open economy. The home office has issued in its official paper that immigrants contribute around 2.5 billion to the Exchequer in the form of taxes, remittances, etc. To sum this point up, a high negative migration rate can have several ramifications into the UK economy. To some extent, economic justification can adequately justify large-scale immigration into Britain. In a paper titled 'Migrants - Do they bring economic benefit', MigrationWatchUK says: '.. most immigrants come for reasons that are not primarily work related. In 2003 only 21% of those granted settlement came here to work (including dependants). The others were those granted asylum or family reunion. Those who do come as workers are cheap and, therefore, attractive to employers but it is extremely expensive for the tax payer who has to provide the additional infrastructure. It is also a mixed blessing for the less skilled indigenous workforce whose wages are held down and who are rendered more likely to be unemployed. Thus the economic and social costs of immigration must be balanced against its benefits.' Mark Kleinman, writes in the Political Quarterly: 'In broad terms, the economic impact of migration is positive for the destination country; but the size of the impact is not great, and there are distributional consequences to consider... the economic arguments alone will not be (and should not be) decisive.' So, the question that must now be answered is what is the optimal level of migration, more specifically immigration that must be maintained for optimality and balance in the UK economy Optimality here would depend on exactly how much imported skill UK is in need of. This question too could be side-stepped by increasing the variety of local skill available in the Britain itself and only import the special or unique skills it is not possible to produce within UK. Also, a better option could be to control the activities of those who have already immigrated into UK. This would include curtailing the postgraduate activities of those immigrants who came with the purpose of gaining education. Also, illegal human trafficking into UK and offering to jobs to immigrant laborers below the minimum wage must be curtailed at all costs in order to have any scope for future gain. So, to conclude there should be some limit to the number of immigrants as well as stricter controls on those immigrating. As a good summation, OPT (Optimum Population Trust) suggest the following criterion for immigration policy: 'Since we believe that our population density is now too great for our resources, we think that a just solution is to balance immigration with emigration. As around 350,000 people leave our shores each year, we suggest limiting immigration to the same numbers, to produce a neutral effect on our population growth.' References Sir Andrew Green (Chairman of Migration Watch UK), 2007, The Sunday Times, London, 4 November, 2007, Anonymous, 2003, The Politics of Migration, Blackwell publishers, Anonymous, June 2000 / OECD, Prospect Magazine, Observer No 221-222, Timothy Hatton, 2005, "Explaining trends in UK immigration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 719-740, November, Research Development and Statistics (RDS) Occasional Paper No 77, page 11 Definitions from http://www.merriam-webster.com/, retrieved on 07.11.07 Briefing by Rosamund McDougall (Advisory Council, Optimum Population Trust) on Migration: UK from www.migrationwatchuk.com on 25.07.07, The Commission for Racial Equality's final report from www.migrationwatchuk.com as retrieved on 25.07.07 Migrants - Do they bring economic benefit from www.migrationwatchuk.com as retrieved on 16.04.07 Office for National Statistics - Table 1.13 from www.statistics.gov.uk as retrieved on 20.04.07 Read More