Mass Migration to European Host Countries Threat or Benefit - Essay Example

Mass Migration to European Host Countries - Threat or Benefit Introduction The last two decades have witnessed major changes in the migration to European countries. There have been new destinations and new regions of origin for the people to think of migration. This has made most of the traditional models of migration not only inadequate but also out of date. The result is significant changes in the international migration policies and changes in the existing regulations of almost all of the European nations. Political changes and ethnic conflicts witnessed in the central and eastern European countries have largely influenced the size and direction of the flows of European migration. The flows for the non-European region led to a large scale migration to Europe. The increased restrictions on immigration policies have resulted in the increased flow of non-conventional and illegal migrants in to the European nations. The involvement of European Union in the migration policies of the individual member nations has increasingly become necessary and further enlargement in the European Union territory has accentuated this necessity. The flows of migration in both directions have resulted in some major impact on the economies of the host countries in the EU. This paper analyzes the possible effects of the migration as to whether the mass migration results in some benefit or it should be construed as a threat to the nations. Purpose of Mass Migration People migrate from one country or region to another for their own benefits which may include getting a better pay, joining the spouse of parent, to obtain more welfare benefits or for security reasons. Most of the host nations receiving these migrants stand to benefit. For instance, the demand for labour may be met easily when imported from other countries. On some other occasions the same country may export labour to other countries depending on the economic cycle the country is undergoing and due to the differences in the economies of different countries and labour markets. However whether the mass migration to another country really benefits the people in the host country is a matter of circumstance prevailing in the host nation. It may be noted that all the international migrants in the recent past to the United States and European Union represent spouses, dependants, relatives, students, asylum claimants for whom there is absolutely no demand in these countries. In any case they do not represent labour migrants. Apart from these there are other illegal and short term migrants who would like to stay and improve their position by any available avenues. Over the period the economic benefits of labour migration have become less significant and have even turned negative (Borjas 1996, Wardensjo, 1999). Argument for Economic Interests of Business The first argument that will be put forth in favour of mass migration is the economic criteria involving business interests. However this argument suffers from a lacuna that the business interests that favour mass migration inwards into a country is always of short term nature. Although easy and immediate access to labor will be preferred rather than the costs involve in training and capital investment for long term, the nature of economic cycle would make the labour which was essential yesterday totally unemployed today, as has been witnessed with most the factories and mills of Europe. Employers who demand more of immigrant labour could not be blamed for the changed scenario. If the businesses are made responsible for the dealing the with the life time cost of these labour immigrants they would obviously reduce their demand for immigrant labour and make long term capital investment. However it must be remembered that the countries can not be just treated as just a set of economic levers but they consist of communities of people who have their own shared values, commitments, identities, origins and aspirations all of which will be affected by mass migration of people. Argument for General Economic Interest Mass migration in general implies the flow of labour from countries having cheap labour and less capital to countries where labour is scarce and capital is abundant. The general assumption of economic theory is that such mass migration should equalize the proportion of capital to labour reaches an equilibrium position where the wages are equalized and the efficiency of the capital is maximized. At this point the mass migration should stop. The economic theory further assumes that the process of mass migration checks wage inflation rates and maximize the output to enhance the global average income levels. However in reality these basic economic assumptions do not hold well, due to the fact the proportion of the population of the poor countries far outweigh that of the host countries. This does not allow the equilibrium position to be arrived. The fact remains that most of the migrants do not bring capital with them and most of them move for purposes other than those associated with the labour market. With the result that the assumed reduction of wages in host countries never arises but the migrants also tend to receive the benefit of higher income. Another aspect that needs consideration is that due to 'segmented labour market' there will emerge some class of jobs that need to be done by the immigrants only but not by the locals (Cain 1976). However the reason behind this state is that the locals do not find some jobs unattractive as only immigrants do these jobs. Moreover when the employers can pay only immigrant wages and not the local wage s then they become dependent on the immigrant labour rather perpetually and in some cases on illegal immigrants also. Though the existence of such segmented labour market is not large, they tend to result in excessive levels of employment protection in the regular economy and at the same time encouraging the illegal immigrant employment. Externalities of Mass Migration There are various externalities and problems associated with mass migration, which the economic analysis cannot bring out and which are difficult to measure. These aspects may be politically embarrassing or politically incorrect and which are usually ignored in assessing the impact of mass migration. The most prominent factors are the levels of income and taxes paid as measured against the costs associated with welfare, unemployment, and provision of pensions. There are elements like cost of education (this often becomes complicated due to the language difficulties and other cultural needs), the costs to be incurred with regeneration of urban areas or provision of new buildings to the immigrant population which otherwise would have been eliminated. Smith (1994) claims the crime levels and public law and order problems are on the rise in the among the ethnic minority population of recent immigration origin in the Europe. Apart from petty street crimes, crimes like syndicates involved in drugs and other social crimes like prostitution and trafficking of illegal immigrants which enhances the number of asylum claimants. The other problems of mass migration are the distortion of the economies and creation of dependence on further immigrants and continuance of enterprises of low productivity. The mass migration results in the payment of obsolete low wage industries to continue with the poor facilities. Otherwise these industries might have to raise the wage levels of their workers; or introduce more capital intensive processes involving heavy investments; or subcontracting the operations in low cost countries. A best example of this situation may be found in the textile mill and foundry townships located in the Northern England which otherwise needed heavy capital investment for modernizing was allowed to fail in the 1960s. These mills struggle for a further period of more than a decade and finally closed due to the availability of immigrant labour. These towns are now inhabited by fast growing ethnic minority population which is badly integrated with high levels of unemployment. There were serious race riots around these areas in the year 2001. Another example is Britain's nationalized National Health Services which has depended largely on foreign doctors and nurses for a number of decades. The availability of immigrant doctors and nurses has made the NHS to exist as the "Europe's most under-funded and inadequate health service offering poor conditions to its staff and a poor service to its patients". As a consequence of excessive dependence on the immigrants the medical training in UK has reached a very low level that it was not possible to supply quality and adequate medical service personnel form the domestic sources. Security Issues One of the most serious issues connected with the mass migration is the national security for many of the European nations, especially after the 9/11 incident in the US. Opinion surveys in some of the European countries reveal that substantial proportion of the immigrant population especially young people belonging to the second generation do not bother about the internal security of their host countries in recent conflicts. Most of them also approve the actions of al-Qaeda and that a minority of them even applauds them. Even before such events as the recent terrorist attacks gave rise to issues of security that brought the national solidarity in to focus, mass migration has seeded conflicts from the other parts of the world in the Western countries. These newer problems lead to complications in the domestic and international policies in new ways. Mass Migration and Changes in Demography The UN report has suggested that the population of Europe has already started feeling the need for more immigrant population to help them from the issues arising out of ageing of the population in general. The need for the potential support ratio of people of working age to pensioners has been identified by the reports (UN 2000, 2001). Current relatively favourable support ratios have been derived from the 20th century (Coleman 2002). In order to preserve the present ratio of people of working age to pensioners in the European Union which range at 4:1would require an average of 13 million additional immigrants per every year up to 2050. Even an increase in the births to the replacement level of about 2.1 children could result in the restoration of the ratio to 3:1. The support ratio can also be increased by other non-demographic means like improving work-force participation, discouraging early retirement, more reforms in the pension schemes, improving productivity and by moving the retirement age gradually upwards. Long term Effects of Mass Migration Finally, any level of mass migration into a country unmatched with a below replacement fertility level would lead to the replacement of the original population with one of the immigrant origin. In the case of United States, even with its high fertility rates, the ratio of non-white Hispanic has been projected to reach a minority level by the year 2050. Before the same year, population of immigrant origin in the region of 30 percent and more has been projected for the countries of Germany and Denmark. EU Initiatives on Common European Immigration Policy Almost all the member nations of the European Union have been affected by the flow of the mass international migration. In order to mitigate the issues relating to the mass migration these countries have agreed to arrive at a common immigration policy. The countries have also agreed that these policies would be operating at the EU level. The European Commission has been working on the proposals covering this issue most of which have been converted into EU legislation applicable to all EU nations. Despite enforcing most restrictive immigration policies form the 1970s the member countries have been suffering from the problem of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. Based on the desire of the people to get better wages and standard of living, smuggling and trafficking rackets have spread widely across the EU much to the threat of the economic advancement and security of the individual member nations. However, the EC has also identified the need for more migrants in certain sectors of the EU economy which needs the formulation of common immigration policies. "Realising that a new approach to managing migration was necessary, the leaders of the EU set out at the October 1999 European Council in Tampere (Finland) the elements for a common EU immigration policy. The approach agreed in Tampere in 1999 was confirmed in 2004 with the adoption of The Hague programme, which sets the objectives for strengthening freedom, security, and justice in the EU for the period 2005-2010 (European Commission)". The European Commission has taken steps in the matters of economic migration, with a green paper on a common EU approach to manage the economic migration, integration of the third country nationals, control of illegal immigration and return and issues concerning migration and development to control mass migration. The first step of the European Commission was to create and present a common EU immigration policy presented in November 2000. The policy was expected to be debated by all the parties connected with the issue like the member nations, other EU institutions, and the civil Society to offer any suggestions on modifying the policy. Later on more such policies covering the mass migration issue were issued which subsequently become EU legislations to be adopted by all the member nations. In order to promote the legal migration and integration of the people moving from the third world countries EU is developing common approaches that will be adopted by the member nations. The important step is the proposal of the European Commission evolved in the year 2005, the setting of an integration fund. This fund will be operated within the new broad framework programme on 'Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows for the period 2007-2013. The objective of this fund is to aid the national efforts to tackle the multidimensional issue of integration of the third country nationals. The Fund will also create a new form of solidarity in order to support the efforts of the member nations in facilitating the immigrant third country nationals of different cultural, religious, linguistic, and ethnical backgrounds to settle down in the host countries and to take active part in all the facets of the European Societies (European Commission). Conclusion Migration has its own role in every society and can bring benefits to the individuals and the society as a whole. But like any other human interactions, the mass migration must be kept within certain limits subject to applicable legal provisions. The mass migration can not be kept open but organized or limited in tune with the democratically expressed preferences of the societies of the host countries. It appears that only those people who consider the short term interests of the employers before other factors and those who are not serious enough in the protection of the security of their countries would be favouring mass migration as the mass migration would be more detrimental to the host countries than being beneficial. References Borjas, G. J. (1999). Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy Princeton, Princeton University Press. Cain, G. (1976). "The Challenge of segmented labor market theories to orthodox theories A survey" Journal of Economic Literature: 1215 - 1257. Coleman, D.A. (2002) Replacement Migration, or why everyone is going to have to live in Korea: a fable for our times from the United Nations Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 357 583 - 598 European Commission 'A Common Framework for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals' http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/immigration/integration/fsj_immigration_integration_en.htm European Commission 'Towards a common European Union immigration policy' Smith, D. J. (1994) Race, Crime and Criminal Justice The Oxford Handbook of Criminology M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner. Oxford, Clarendon Press: 1041 - 1117. United Nations (2000) Replacement Migration: Is it a Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations New York, United Nations. United Nations (2001) United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Policy Responses to Population Ageing and Population Decline, New York 16-18 October. New York, United Nations Wadensj , E. (1999) Economic Effects of Immigration. in Coleman, D. A. and E. Wadensj (1999). Immigration to Denmark: International and national perspectives. Aarhus, Aarhus University Press Read More