Causes and Effects of Immigration (Essay Sample)

Immigration
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Immigration is the movement of people into a foreign country to live permanently. People having to change their place of residents has been witnessed throughout history. Immigration is, therefore, a continuous phenomenon which can either be out of own willingness or forced circumstance. There are various causes of immigration which could be natural phenomena, or economic reasons. Immigration leads to shifts in the political, social and economic spheres which significantly affect the receiving countries. The act of immigration has consequences on both the country of origin and the receiving country. Such consequences can either positive or negative though people’s attitudes have changed into believing it only to be a problematic matter. Due to the anticipated negative effects, most countries have made restrictive laws intended to keep the immigrants away.
Immigration can result from various causes. One of the causes is overpopulation which exceeds the carrying capacity of the nation. High population growth leads to problematic situations such as shortage of water, pollution and poverty (Ortega & Peri, 2009). People will find it best to flee their homeland to seek better resources in a foreign country. Secondly, presence of wars in a country forces the citizens to flee to another country in search of comfort and peace. People will try all means to escape the repressive country. Moreover, immigration also results due to natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods and droughts. The natural aspects are not predictable and, therefore, when if falls a country, people are forced to move to new places in search for refuge. Furthermore, immigration is also caused by search for education in foreign countries. Some people would chose to study abroad where they prefer the educational levels. Most graduates do not consider to go back to their own country after the completion of their studies.
One of the effects of immigration is seen in the alteration of the social aspects of the country. When the immigrants are received with positive attitude, they contribute to cultural diversity in the nation. Collaboration among different cultures is beneficial to the growth of a nation. On the other hand, when the immigrants are not accepted in the country, there results a culture clash. The local people may perceive that presence of immigrants lead to lose of national identity, therefore, immigration results in social conflicts and racism (Ottaviano et al., 2012). This consequently result in activities such as robbery and drug trafficking which are often administered by the immigrants due to overwhelming situations in the new home.
Secondly, immigration has an outcome in the economic sector of the receiving country. Immigrants would increase the labor that brings about development in this country and at times result in unemployment among the local residents. The immigrants would provide cheap labor, therefore, robing the locals of employment (Boubtane et al, 2013). Immigrants who come to the host country for educational reasons, often do not prefer to go back, the host country benefits form professors and educators who are utilized for economic purposes. Moreover, immigrations affects the political sphere of the host country (Ortega & Peri, 2009). Rich immigrants may get high polit