Essay (Final)

Globalization and Immigration Problem

As international interaction has increased and integration has spread to different aspects of life, globalization has brought significant advantages as well as disadvantages towards people around the world. While people are pursuing their self-interests, they have become worried about problems caused by increasing immigration issues. Immigration, induced by globalization, is a double-edged sword. Although it may facilitate academic exchanges and technological advancement, immigrants may result in a heavier burden upon the host countries, especially in the fields of job opportunities, culture and cost of education. To address these problems, two methods can be implemented: taking a stricter immigration policy and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, these solutions need to be carefully evaluated according to effectiveness before the actual implementation.

Increasing immigration has a variety of adverse effects on the global human society. First and foremost, immigrants may compete for job opportunities and increase the cost on education. According to the statistics updated by Singapore Department of Statistics in 2012, Singaporean labor force consists of more than 25% foreign workforce (Huang, 2013), which caused great concern among the native people because of difficulties in finding a job. Besides, due to more expense on language courses for immigrant children, the extra cost on education is approximately 11.2 billion US dollars (Mcnatt & Benassi, 2006). In spite of the more intense competitive market of opportunities and higher cost on education, immigrant issues may also threaten the security. For example, it was reported in 2007, that one fifth of the crimes in London were committed by the foreigners (Harper & Leapman, 2007). In order to minimize the adverse effects immigration brought, one method involves taking stricter immigration policies. For instance, UK has laws to increase fines on companies which apply illegal immigrant workers and to force native landlords to check the immigration status of their foreign tenants (Castle, 2013). Besides, the US is implementing a nationwide system of biometric identification for foreigners, which prevents employers from hiring undocumented immigrants (The White House, 2013). This method is relatively effective in ameliorating the immigration problems, because decreasing employment opportunities would eliminate the desire to come into the country illegally. Nonetheless, it may hurt business as technological immigrant labor may also develop the economic growth. In addition, this method may also cause immigrants to protest against the government in terms of equality. Hence, the government should identify what attracts immigrants most and reduce benefits of immigrants in that area. In this way, immigrants, considering benefits and costs of immigration, might be less willing to immigrate.

Another method is to grant workers a path to gain citizenship. The US government attempted amnesty in 1986 and benefited 2.8 million undocumented immigrants. Therefore, these foreigners who illegally gained entry into the US are forgiven and offered an access to legal citizens after payments of taxes and fines (Espinosa, 2013). This method is not as effective as the previous solution. Some assert this method works because the taxes and fines were costly, which led to a phenomenon that many illegal workers returned to their home countries (Espinosa, 2013). However, opponents claim that granting amnesty only encourages more illegal immigration, because illegal immigrants may have a chance to stay in the host country and become legal citizens. Hence, to improve this method, government could collect the more detailed background information of the applicants for amnesty, evaluate them in terms of a list of stricter criteria, and force them to pay their taxes and fines. In addition, establish a program that prevents fraud in the applications may lead this method to a more effective way.

In conclusion, immigration has caused many problems to the native population and the host countries. To address these problems, two possible solutions can be implemented: tougher immigration policies and offering workers a path to citizenship. However, as each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, no solution is a panacea to such a complex issue. Therefore, a combination of various solutions may solve the problem more effectively.

References:

Huang, E. (2013, Mar. 18). Growing number of migrant workers stirs debate in Singapore. Retrieved from http://www.aseannews.net/growing-number-of-migrant-workers-stirs-debate-in-singapore/

Mcnatt, R., Benassi, F. (2006, April. 4). Econ 101 in illegal immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-04-06/econ-101-on-illegal-immigrantsbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Harper, T., Leapman, B. (2007, Sep. 23). Foreigners ‘commit fifth of crime in London’. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563890/Foreigners-commit-fifth-of-crime-in-London.html

Castle, S. (2013, May. 8). British government moves to toughen rules on immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/world/europe/britain-urges-tougher-immigration-laws.html?_r=0

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (2013, Jan. 29). Fact sheet: fixing our broken immigration system so everyone plays by the rules. [Immediate Release] Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/29/fact-sheet-fixing-our-broken-immigration-system-so-everyone-plays-rules

Espinosa, H. ABS CBN North America Bureau. (2013, Jun. 6). Special report: the cost of legalization in US. Retrieved from http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/06/06/13/special-report-cost-legalization-us