International Migration (Essay Sample)

Cleon Lewis
Professor Abrahams
Political Economy 203
13 February 2015
To what extent will migration from the developing world to the developed world become a social and political issue in the 21st century?
Developed world is comprised of those countries that have post-industrial economies, meaning the service sector provides more wealth than the industrial sector; this is in contradistinction with developing countries which are basically in the process of industrialization. In the international space, terms like South and North countries emerge, the former meaning world`s poor countries vis a vis the latter which allude to rich countries. Developed countries are characterized with: high gross domestic product (GDP); high levels of industrialization dominated by tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry and very high human development index (HDI) rating; all these basically culminating to high living standards with high life expectancy thus the attraction for migration rush from developing countries to developed countries .Migration simply means, "crossing the boundary of a political or administrative unit for a certain minimum period ( Boyle et al. 1998,2). Due to this immigration influx, core social and political issues arise as explored in this dissertation in the subsequent paragraphs.
Over the years there has been a global scourge which all world states have been fighting to eradicate; racism, which Part 1 of the U.N. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination defines as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”, thus racism is, if not one of the major socio-political issue which arises as a result of migration to the developed worlds. Racism has been quite a challenge and with mass migration to first world countries in place, it continues to be the main issue in the 21st century. A case of point where we have witnessed its vicious venom was the conflicts between African Americans and Korean Americans(Los Angeles riots of 1992) this escalated due to perception that immigrants and in some cases refugees who are offered residence appear to get more benefits than the locals since they offer cheap labor, tensions and hostilities usually arise and rampant hatred emanates from the citizens to foreigners resulting to violent attacks, mistreatment, prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination towards the immigrants. In East Asia, in the Financial Crisis it is observed that there was politicization of migration, with migrants being blamed for economic and social problems. Attempts at mass deportation and stricter border control were made, with limited success (1997, 99).
Another global political issue which emerges from migration is power erosion of the nation state. One main area which this is particularly apparent is in border-control which is viewed in international law as the crucial aspect of nation-state sovereignty. Reference has been made before to the difficulties experienced by emigration countries in controlling unwanted migratory flows. Although some developed countries have put measures in place to regulate this movement like The Schengen Agreement in Europe and the tightening of border controls in the USA may have reduced irregular movements, but certainly haven`t stopped them .This inability to cope with migration flow makes the host countries unable to curb the criminals who traffic drugs and sometimes terrorists infiltrating into the countries resulting to political instability in those countries. This in the larger picture becomes a global political issue even to the developing countries since these political structures and systems in the South countries are determined and shaped by the West countries.
A major social and political issue which arises is the erosion of the homogeneity of cultural cum social and political unity of states of Westphalian treaty of 1648 which the nation state boasts of. In most countries, ethnic homogeneity being the basis of nation state is illustrated by common language, culture, traditions and history. Immigration and ethnic diversity threaten such ideas of the state because they create a people without common ethnic origins which ideally constitute a sovereign state. Albeit the developed countries in an effort to create uniformity tend to integrate immigrants by offering them citizenship, the failure of assimilation policies and the growth of ethnic communities portend that the new citizens are not incorporated into sharing the dominant culture of the emigration state. Thus Castles and Davidson write that the emergence of multicultural societies creates major challenges to national identities. Institutions are likely to change in response to diverse values and needs (2000). The modern developed countries should borrow from classical countries of immigra...