Immigration And Australian Law - Essay Example

Running Head: Illegal immigrants Name Course Tutor Date In Australia today, much is defined by immigration. The arrival of new settlers has been for a long time been a dominant theme in this country’s history and national development since 1788. This therefore means that, the majority of its inhabitants are either immigrants or even decedents of immigrants. Immigration in this case can be defined as the movement of groups of people or even individuals from one place to another. Australia has been an option for many immigrants for both legal and illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are those who close an international political border, or even a foreigner who enters a country illegally violating the immigration laws of the destination country1. Illegal immigration has consequences that accompany it. These consequences however fluctuate from beneficial to non beneficial aspects depending with the situation of both the source and destination countries. From an economical point of view, illegal immigration can have both negative and positive impacts2. However, it has been argued that, illegal immigrants reduce the number of unemployed in the source country while the increase that rate in Australia. However, some research depict that, illegal immigrants take up jobs that legal residents refuse. It have been stated that, illegal immigration is a crime and it threatens the lives of legal residents children, take jobs away from legal Australians and millions of dollars are wasted every years. I addition, there has been many concerns of the impacts they cause to the security and the economic aspects in the entire country. In Australia, only Australian citizens, permanent residents of Australia and New Zealand citizens who have a valid passport are around to stay and work in Australia without any restrictions. Illegal immigrants have no right working in Australia3. This is due to the notion that they deny Australian citizens and permanent resident the opportunity to obtain an employment, they also place an additional burden on taxpayer in terms of cost associated with locating and removing illegal immigrants, uncollected taxes and some even fraudulently obtain government benefits. Additionally, illegal immigrants in Australia cause a lot of corrosions in the companies when they are given chances to work in the country. First, those employers who do not employ illegal immigrants may not be able to compete with those who employ and underpay illegal workers. This in other words means that, employees take advantage of their presence and since their labor force is cheap they opt for it to the expense of the competition between the companies. It is illegal to have an illegal worker in the country4. According to the Migration Act 1958, it is a criminal offense to have a worker whose residence in the country is illegal. Any conviction of such offenses attracts fines of up to $ 13,200 and even two years of imprisonment while companies face up to $ 60,000 per illegal worker. Additionally it is a crime for an employer or a labor supplier to aid or abet foreign national working illegally in Australia according to Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995. It is proven that, many people from diverse source countries make their way illegally into Australia via Indonesia through air and land border by use of fraudulent travel documentation nd corrupt officials sometimes who happen to come from the same ethnicity assisting with every movement at the points of entry. Even though illegal immigrants’ workers increase output, their additional to the supply of labor affects the wage rates in the markets. This therefore means that, the native born workers who compete with immigrants fro job may suffer from reduced earnings or even reduced employments. It is clearly speculated that illegal immigrants have the highest capabilities of lowering the price of factors which they are perfect substitutes, have effect on the price of factors they are imperfect substitutes and raise the prices for those which they are complements. When this happens to a State or a region whose economy production uses capital and skilled wage, which are complementary and unskilled labor which substitute the other two, then, they will lower the wage of a skilled laborer and this may bring about competition of the available jobs with the legal residents. The illegal migration in Australia had recognizable and positive contribution on the social and cultural behaviors of the residents in the country. They benefited families, society as whole, government, administrative and non-governmental organizations. To add on this they changed the country’s way of life by influencing the educated professions by their level of knowledge and in their creative ways of developing arts. Since the traditional cultures were barriers to economic success the immigrants enforced their cultures so that they can create jobs5. Basically the British who were the immigrant in Australia posed a positive cultural influence .New skills were acquire by the Australians especially in the mining of Gold, paying of wages and moderation of working hours. Those who lived in rural areas had to move to urban areas and these led to the change in the traditional cultures and they found ways of increasing their income and the living standard improved. There were new bloods in the society as the Chinese guys married the Australians who later started their livelihood by venturing into cafes businesses and vegetable selling. Also the way of worship was affected by the introduction of Christian faith by the British where Buddhism and other religions were replaced. With the introduction of other cultures by the Immigrants into the community, new talents were developed. The cultural influences from the immigrants owed more to enhancing communication over the international borders. The arts in music and theatre acting were exchanged heightening the emergence of new talents6. It is evident that illegal migration had a negative impact on cultural aspects in Australia. The children highly abandoned their cultures and endorsed the immigrant’s culture. This was more dangerous in the understanding that with the intervention of immigrants the terrorists were able to recruit people and this brought about insecurity in the country7. Illegal migration posed threats and challenges to the society. The average age of the Australians has lowered together with the ratio of old people over the whole population in the country. This wasn’t to the expected rate if there were no immigrants. The unskilled immigrants would slower down the rate of development of Australia since they couldn’t socialize with the Australian residents. Since more of the immigrants are unemployed, cases of crime are intense8. The intense rate of unemployment reduces the gain of knowledge and skills and this retarded the maintenance of the culture. The illegal immigrants also pose a risk of spreading dangerous diseases in Australia since they have not gone through a medical checkup. Cases of smuggling of drugs and human trafficking increased and these affected the stability of the Australian cultures and the solidarity was paralyzed. Illegal immigrants in Australia have no legibility to access the social security system which includes health, accidental and pension insurance. This therefore means that, they don’t have a right to enjoy the benefits from the healthcare facility. However, the Australian legislation has no special provision governing the access to healthcare for illegally resident immigrants. However, the Australian law on Hospitals and Sanatoria orders every hospital to take in and treat any injured patients whose health is in danger9. This being the case, it is worth noting that, medical treatment is a service that incurs certain costs and therefore medicating illegal immigrants or working immigrants have limited urgent medical aid Even after the Federal Maximum number which limits the number of foreign workers accepted into the work force, illegal immigrants still finds their way into informal employments. However, they risk poor working conditions, underpayments and exploitation10. However, they should not be labeled as victims for they receive better pays that what they would get in their country of origin. In some cases, it is assumed that, after they have sent quite a number of remittances to their family members for a certain period of time, they then return to their country of origin. These illegal immigrants do not have access to apartments paid for by tax monies, municipal or cooperative apartments. This therefore means that, undocumented migrants have problems in finding an available, decent and reasonably priced housing (Picum 2003). Illegal immigrants have diverse impact on the supply and the demand of many aspects. New entrants in Australia increase the expenditure of house hold items. This in other words means that, they will have to purchase the basic needs. This will on the other hand translate to additional demand of those goods and services and the demand for labor11. They will join in the labor market to find work and this means that the increased labor supply will be addressed adequately. This in the long run entails that; an increase of immigrants in the country will mean that there will be an increase in opportunities which will translate to economic gains. However, when illegal immigrants add more to the labor supply, this will result to unemployment, mostly to the aliens. This as mentioned earlier is attributed to the fact that, employers opt for illegal immigrants who they can exploit and underpay them to the benefit of their business performance and gain competitive advantages. It is confirmed that, illegal immigration causes tremendous economic consequences and therefore it should be returned to being a crime punished by imprisonment and deportation12. Expansion of a shadow economy which operates outside of tax laws and economic legislation; actually the removal of significant amounts of currency from circulation, the influx money made on black market, worsening of the current situation in the labor market, displacement of Australian firms and workers and the criminalization of businesses13. Additionally, other social consequences are also experienced as the increase of criminal activity, social tension and hostility, deterioration of relations among the ethnic groups and the emergence of hostile nationalistic groups and mafia. Unless actions are taken, then the country will continues experiencing the consequences of having illegal immigrants in the nation. When illegal immigrants and detained or even deported, then there some changes that are going to be experienced in the nation. This is attributed to the fact that, they take up the low skilled and low paid jobs. Restricting them will mean that there will be openings in the employment opportunities for Australian legal residents. On the other hand, the economy will be made small and this will in the long run result to a reduction in employment opportunities in more highly skilled and highly paid jobs14. This therefore means that, the number of employees that are going to be realized even after the deportation of the illegal employees will not make any differences with the situations experienced today. As a matter of fact, there are going to be fewer jobs to cater for even the skilled population in Australia. These illegal immigrants cost the government a lot of taxpayers’ money. It has been reported that, there are some asylum seekers who pretend that they are refugees and they fleas the government lots of money as used on the humanitarian grounds. Four out of five families of such cases rely on welfare and more than 60% of those labeling themselves as refugees have failed to get jobs and therefore rely on welfare for income. This therefore entails that, illegal immigrant’s flout Australia’s law and then become burdens on the nation, especially the boat people of Afghanistan and Iraq15. Strict guidelines to scrutinize them for they are criminals who are entering the country just for economic and political reasons for the country have soft attitude towards refugees. It’s that, some even abuse the court system by attempting to fight their way into legal process in the high court. It is however worth noting that, refugees are not illegal immigrants. As mentioned earlier, illegal immigrants contribute positively to the economy whenever they pay taxes, and indirectly when they pay rent payments16. However, according to Migration Act 1958, they ought to be detained and deported unless given permission to stay in the country. Many people have become illegal immigrants through overstayed visas and others through people smugglers. However, all cannot be ruled out. This is attributed to the fact that, currently, only 72% of the whole population is made of Australian born. All the others are migrants who bring about diverse cultural, economic and geopolitical advantages and disadvantages for Australia. It is also worth noting that, due to this migrants, Australia realizes an increased demand for infrastructure through the expenditure on foods and housing, and even an expansion of regional business and investments links and additional to labor and skills level brought by this migrants. However, they cause an increase in poverty, unemployment and crime mostly in the areas they have overpopulated, like in Sydney. References A v Australia. 1997. Human Rights Committee Communication No. 560/1993. 30 April 1997. Barcia, I. 2003. The Detention of Foreign Nationals After September 11: An International Perspective. Benders Immigration Bulletin 8: 1745-1756 Borjas, George J. 2003. The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping: Reexamining the Impact of Immigration on the Labor Market. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118: 1335 1374. Gathmann, Christina. 2008. Effects of Enforcement on Illegal Markets: Evidence from Migrant Smuggling on the Southwestern Border. Journal of Public Economics 92(10-11): 1926-1941. Gallagher, A., Pearson E. 2010. The high cost of freedom: A legal and policy analysis of shelter detention for victims of trafficking. Human Rights Quarterly 32: 73-114. Gollin, Douglas, (2002). "Getting Income Shares Right," Journal of Political Economy, 110(2), pp. 458-474. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). 2009. The CPT Standards. Council of Europe: 2009: 37-55 Feld, S., (2000), Active Population Growth and Immigration Hypotheses in Western Europe, European Journal of Population, 16: 3-40. Levy, C. 2010. Refugees, Europe, Camps/State of Exception: ‘Into the Zone,’the European Union and Extraterritorial Processing of Migrants, Refugees, and Asylum-Seekers (Theories and Practice). Refugee Survey Quarterly. Vol. 29, No. 1 (UNHCR 2010): 92 119. Hazari BR., Sgro PM (2003). "The Simple Analysis of Optimal Growth with Illegal Migrants." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 28(1), pp. 141-151. Moy HM., Yip CK (2006). "The Simple Analytics of Optimal Growth with Illegal Migrants: A Clari.cation." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 30(12), pp. 2469-2475. Palivos, Theodore (2009)."Welfare E¤ects of Illegal Immigration", Journal of Populatio Eco-nomics, 22(1), pp. 131-144. Saunders, M., O’Kelly, A., (2000), Worker Depletion, Sterling Weekly, 4 August pp.1-7 Read More

Additionally, illegal immigrants in Australia cause a lot of corrosions in the companies when they are given chances to work in the country. First, those employers who do not employ illegal immigrants may not be able to compete with those who employ and underpay illegal workers. This in other words means that, employees take advantage of their presence and since their labor force is cheap they opt for it to the expense of the competition between the companies. It is illegal to have an illegal worker in the country4.

According to the Migration Act 1958, it is a criminal offense to have a worker whose residence in the country is illegal. Any conviction of such offenses attracts fines of up to $ 13,200 and even two years of imprisonment while companies face up to $ 60,000 per illegal worker. Additionally it is a crime for an employer or a labor supplier to aid or abet foreign national working illegally in Australia according to Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995. It is proven that, many people from diverse source countries make their way illegally into Australia via Indonesia through air and land border by use of fraudulent travel documentation nd corrupt officials sometimes who happen to come from the same ethnicity assisting with every movement at the points of entry.

Even though illegal immigrants’ workers increase output, their additional to the supply of labor affects the wage rates in the markets. This therefore means that, the native born workers who compete with immigrants fro job may suffer from reduced earnings or even reduced employments. It is clearly speculated that illegal immigrants have the highest capabilities of lowering the price of factors which they are perfect substitutes, have effect on the price of factors they are imperfect substitutes and raise the prices for those which they are complements.

When this happens to a State or a region whose economy production uses capital and skilled wage, which are complementary and unskilled labor which substitute the other two, then, they will lower the wage of a skilled laborer and this may bring about competition of the available jobs with the legal residents. The illegal migration in Australia had recognizable and positive contribution on the social and cultural behaviors of the residents in the country. They benefited families, society as whole, government, administrative and non-governmental organizations.

To add on this they changed the country’s way of life by influencing the educated professions by their level of knowledge and in their creative ways of developing arts. Since the traditional cultures were barriers to economic success the immigrants enforced their cultures so that they can create jobs5. Basically the British who were the immigrant in Australia posed a positive cultural influence .New skills were acquire by the Australians especially in the mining of Gold, paying of wages and moderation of working hours.

Those who lived in rural areas had to move to urban areas and these led to the change in the traditional cultures and they found ways of increasing their income and the living standard improved. There were new bloods in the society as the Chinese guys married the Australians who later started their livelihood by venturing into cafes businesses and vegetable selling. Also the way of worship was affected by the introduction of Christian faith by the British where Buddhism and other religions were replaced.

With the introduction of other cultures by the Immigrants into the community, new talents were developed. The cultural influences from the immigrants owed more to enhancing communication over the international borders. The arts in music and theatre acting were exchanged heightening the emergence of new talents6. It is evident that illegal migration had a negative impact on cultural aspects in Australia. The children highly abandoned their cultures and endorsed the immigrant’s culture. This was more dangerous in the understanding that with the intervention of immigrants the terrorists were able to recruit people and this brought about insecurity in the country7.

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