Australias Relationship with the World: Immigration - Essay Example

In an era of globalization, labour migration is on the rise. This is mostly due to lack of employment opportunities in the developing countries and the increased demand for low wage workers in the developed countries. These individuals work in other countries for them to support their families back at home as well as themselves. International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that out of 175 million migrants, half of them are workers all around the world (Gordon and Mailman 1959). Migrants do not only promote the economic standard of their host countries but also their home economy through remittances. In 2005 for example, remittances figured $223 billion which was more than twice the rank of international aid. Public perceptions of migration and migrants play a major role in determining policy choices available to governments. The share of migrants in the global population may not be as high but its presence and visibility in terms of social, economic and political terms is felt. Migrants flow have shifted greatly in recent years with changing poles of attraction for labour migration for instance Asians find job opportunities within Asia while the Latin Americans are moving to Europe. There is a high labour participation in Europe, US and Australia. This shows that economic incentives remain high for migration to these market economies. UN confirms significant contribution of migration to population growth in Australia, US and some European countries. Immigration has been a difficult subject to government officials. This is because it raises moral choices about whom to let in the country, for how long and by what means. According to Levi (1999, p. 675) regulating entry means deporting or excluding people whose aim is to earn a living. The limitations of the government policy include one, it is impossible to influence the number of nationals entering the country it can only regulate them from accessing legal employment. Some of the nationals restricted include the Romanians and Bulgarians. The other limitation of the policy is that policy put towards asylum refugees and dependants of British system is greatly determined by considering human rights. These rights include rights to freedom from persecution and the right to family reunion. Consideration of these rights is beyond the governments limit though they can be modified. It is also impossible for a nation to control immigration and employment of migrants. This is because most come as visitors but overstay. Governments are therefore unable to regulate all illegality regarding entry and employment. Many liberals argue that immigration is to our economic benefits therefore people should even aim at welcoming more of it. It helps to offset the ageing population caused by low birth rates and death rates. This means lower taxes for the existing population since immigrants pay more taxes than they receive in terms of government expenditure. Highly skilled professionals add advantage to the economy and may help to create extra jobs for the less skilled people in the society (Hondagneu 1994). In recent years, both the Howard and Rudd Governments have had a policy which has favoured skilled migration in relation to humanitarian migration. People migrate to other countries due to the growth of empires, slave trade, and famine example in great Irish where people moved to US, Canada and other countries. Impacts of wars also lead to migration especially to Australia and the other factor is technological changes in agriculture. Australian society for example changed much between the years 1945-1972. This was mostly influenced by migration act (Iggulden 2008). Race factor was removed in Australia’s immigration policies in 1973 which made all migrants eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence. In 1988, Australia introduced skills policy based on points system. Immigration to Australia has several impacts to the environment, economy and socially. It has also increased population with the number of aged continuing to rise. This worsened trade balance due to increase in imports and a high consumption of domestic production. It increased green house gas emissions; decline in urban air quality and over use of agricultural soil. This reduced Australians capacity to sustain the population. Immigration worsened climate change as most migrants moved from countries with low greenhouse gas emissions per capita to Australia which has high per capita emissions. In 2008, government reported that if drastic changes are not made the country will experience drought in future. Housing issues has also risen due to the increased population. Government policies that fuel housing demand besides capital gains tax discounts and subsidies to boost fertility. This has had a major impact on the affordability of housing on urban fringes. Skilled immigrants have tended to improve employment levels for locals who are relatively unskilled. Issues concerning cuts to immigration levels due to global financial crisis in 2009 were solved where the Prime minister introduced adjusting targets according to the economic situations. In 2009, the government decided to cut its annual immigration intake due to the slowing economy that was weakening the demand for labour. However, trade unions have attempted to introduce foreign workers in order to avoid paying local workers higher wages. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) it is considered that Australia is under populated due to low birth rates. Therefore negative population growth results to long term effects on the economy due to the ageing of the population and less competitive labour market. To avoid this, the government has encouraged increase in migrants for them to cover the gaps labour markets (Alejandro and Julia 1993). It is suggested that when migrants arrive they first encounter unemployment cases and low wages which later converge to that of natives. Second generation migrants do better than their parents as they have more information about the job market unlike their parents who have less human capital specific to the new country. They also have poor language skills and may undergo some sort of discrimination. Finding a job becomes easier to the young, educated, good language skills and if one who had contacts with other migrants from home countries. Less educated migrants work in dirty jobs that natives are not willing to do for example in Australia many migrants work in textile clothing and footwear industries (Borjas 1994). They have also introduced subsidies to encourage people to have more children. However there are people who do not support that population growth will decline basing on current immigration and fertility. Among other things, immigration has been discovered that it declines wealth per capita and that it may lead to environmental degradation as well as overburdened infrastructure. Australian Green support minimal border control restrictions for the sake of humanitarian reason. Immigration policy has been controversial during the economic down- turn of the early 1990s (International migration report 2006). Migration of skilled personnel to other societies can also be referred to as brain drain or human capital flight. This migration may be brought up by either conflict, lack of opportunity or health hazards. According to David and Bob (1990, p. 200) brain drain is particularly experienced in India since educated people migrate to look for higher wages and better job opportunities. The impact of immigration can therefore be considered in four forms such as unemployment and wages, government finances, ageing and population. In terms of unemployment and wages it is true that immigration leads to lower employment to locals but higher money wages for those workers who keep their jobs. Increase of people in an area also increases demand for other amenities such as housing thus push up the cost of living. Immigration improves government finances. It is estimated that in the fiscal year 1999/ 2000 Britain’s migrants paid in aggregate 2.5 billion in taxes more than what they receive in government expenditure (Marixsa and Maura 2003). As British are ageing, they always need to import young people to support them in old age or to pay for their pension. This gives a reason for encouraging immigration. However, this factor ignores the fact that immigrants are also growing and will also need to be supported. It is often said that a bigger population is needed to support a bigger home market. This gives a reason for encouraging immigration as more people will be involved in trading which would have otherwise been exported (Price 1987, p. 18). There are advantages that arise from brain drain and these include; one is that it helps in alleviating poverty. The emigrants go to look for good opportunities and so they send the money that they earn back to their homes. It also results to reduced child labour. This is where families are able to educate their children and for them to become important people in the society. Money remittances have reduced poverty in the regions experiencing immigrations. Money migrants sent back are spent in investments such as health, education and housing. Despite improving economic figures, economic migration is not strictly restricted and thus maltreatment of many migrants. Robin (1995) describes that migrants are vulnerable to harassment, exploitation at place of work and human trafficking. This is because they are not fully granted citizenship in the countries that they settle. The other disadvantage of migration is that investment in higher education is lost as educated person leave their countries and becomes assets of other countries. Their social capital is also reduced once they migrate. There are also chances of brain waste if the education is not put into good use Due to shortages of skills in the home countries the counties are capable of experiencing tremendous increase in wages for high- skill labour. This creates numerous problems in the public sector (Ian et al. 1999). In conclusion, states can not rely on mass immigration to solve problems arising from factors such as ageing and labor shortages. Such problems can only be tackled by mobilizing the underutilized talents and energies of the existing population. Admitting skilled and talented people will be a collective interest. Immigration improves growth but not unemployment, inflation or the current account balance. It brings about brain gain to Australia helping the economy to be more open globally. Australia has thus become a multicultural society and much richer in diversity. A graph showing settler arrival figures to Australia   Settler Arrival Numbers Net Permanent migration 1998-1999 84 100 49 000 1999-2000 92 300 51 200 2000-2001 107 400 60 800 2001-2002 88 900 40 700 2002-2003 93 900 43 500 2003-2004 111 600 52 500 2004-2005 123 400 60 800 2005-2006 131 600 63 700 2006-2007 140 100 68 000 2007-2008 149 400 72 400 2008-2009 158 021 77 000 Source: overseas arrivals and departures Settler arrivals by region of birth between July 2008 and June 2009   Arrivals % Variation Oceania and Antarctica 30 010 -5.3% Europe 29 294 -4.6% North Africa and the Middle East 11 143 34.3% South East Asia 21 008 -0.9% North East Asia 20 977 16.5% Southern Asia 25 900 17.2% Central Asia 1 731 -3.8% Northern America 2 254 2.5% South and Central America & the Caribbean 1 979 -5.8% Sub-Saharan Africa 13 025 22.9% Supplementary Country Codes 671 11.8% Not Stated/Not Elsewhere Included 29 -71.0% Grand Total 158 021 5.8% The graph below shows the contributions of natural growth and net overseas migration to Australias population growth between 2004 and 2008. Source: Australian Demographic Statistics, Dec 2008 (ABS Cat 3101.0) At 30th June 2006, 24.6% of the residents of Australia were born from overseas. Of those born overseas, 29.7% were born in North-West Europe, 16.7% in Southern and Eastern Europe and around 12% in South-East Asia. The top five countries of birth made up 44.7% of the overseas-born population. Net Overseas Migration, Top 5 countries of birth 2007-08 Country of Birth Estimated Number % of Overseas-born United Kingdom 1 140 263 15.3% New Zealand 443 606 14.8% China (excl. SARS and Taiwan ) 259 095 7.5% United States of America 443 401 5.3% Japan 434 078 5.2% Other 4 373 579 51.8% Total Overseas-born 8 414 281 Source: Migration Australia (ABS Cat 3412.0) References Alejandro, P & Julia, S 1993, Embeddedness and immigration: Notes on the social determinants of economic action 2008, American journal of Sociology, vol. 98, no. 6, p. 12. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008, Australian Government - Department of Immigration and Citizenship: Key Facts in Immigration. Borjas, G 1994, The economics of migration, Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 6, pp. 20-23. David, M & Bob, C 1990, America and Americans in Australia, p. 200. Gordon, C & Mailman, S 1959, Immigration law and procedures, p. 117. Hondagneu, G 1994, Gendered transitions: Mexican experiences of immigration, California University Press, London. Iggulden, T 2008, Immigration intake to rise to 300,000, Lateline, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. International Migration Report 2006, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Retrieved 30 October 2009. Levi, 1999, American- Australian relations, Minnesota Press, London, pp. 675. Marixsa, A & Maura I 2003, A global view of Australia: The continent of immigrants, p. 250. Ian, M, Steve, D & Riaz H 1999, The Cambridge handbook of the social sciences in Australia, p. 615. Price, C 1987, Immigration and Ethnic Origin, Australians: Historical Statistics, Broadway, Australia, pp. 2–22.  Robin, C 1995, The Cambridge survey of world migration, Cambridge University Press, Australia, pp.375. Read More