Abstract
The primary task in this term paper is on illegal migration and the related aspects. It defines the scope of illegal immigration and the aims to be achieved at the end of the study. The cases of illegal immigration have been discussed in the paper as perceived by different people worldwide. The evidence provided in the literature review part shows that illegal immigration has existed. The various causes of illegal immigration in terms of social, economic, and political are also represented in the study. The paper also contains the effects of illegal immigration presented as both negative and positive depending on how they work. The possible ways that can be used to manage the evolution and future occurrence of illegal immigration have also been presented concerning the causes and effects. The management solutions are regarding the political, social, and economic impacts usually involved. Lastly, the conclusion contains the emerging issues that need to be addressed and the concerns that need some studies in the future.
Keywords: illegal migration, immigrants, lawful permanent residents.
Introduction
Generally, immigration is one of the global issues that has existed for a very long time ever since. It, therefore, refers to the process through which people or individuals move to other countries and become citizens of those new countries. It is historically understood that the immigration process has led to a greater percentage of benefits to the social, cultural, and economic sectors, especially to the involved countries (Cha, 2020). However, there comes the aspect of illegal immigration, which involves the movement of citizens from one country to another using ways that are not acceptable and are against the law. Most illegal immigrants stay in foreign countries without having permission and the right to be there as the inhabitants. Since it is a current issue that has raised more concern, it has been identified that most foreigners are illegal immigrants as approximated by the statistics made, which is about 18%.
Most remarkably, the majority of the illegal immigrants tend to play a huge role, especially in the economy, since they tend to take up positions that would otherwise be the citizens in those countries. Therefore, it is one of the ways that have increased the rate of unemployment among the citizens of such countries. More so, through the illegal immigrants, there is a high tendency that the funds and resources of the respective countries, including the funds, are drawn away to the nations and states of the immigrants, which also contributes to the low economic growth of such countries. For instance, there has been a significant increase in the number of illegal immigrants between 2007 and 2010, which is estimated to be about 31.8% of the world’s total population. This study aims to provide a clear view of what illegal immigration entails. The need to understand the scope, the causes of illegal immigration, impacts of the illegal immigration, and the future management of the cases of illegal immigration.
Literature Review
With the existence of illegal immigration around the globe, there are various aspects associated with it, such as the causes or the factors which lead to its eruption and evolution. It depends on the means or the methods that an individual uses to enter a foreign country to be termed either legal or illegal immigration. Various discussions on illegal immigration have taken their path in different countries, with each country having its own rules and regulations that define immigration as either legal or illegal. For instance, there is evidence that illegal laborers get about $10 to $20 per hour in California, as a study carried out in 2005 shows. Another research from the Pew Hispanic Center shows that over 3,000 illegal immigrants have moved from Mexico to the United States, most of them, about 79%, decided to join working programs voluntarily.
Causes of illegal immigration
Various factors have led to the emergence and spread of the cases of illegal immigration in multiple countries among individuals. The elements tend to occur as either external or internal depending on how they impact and initiate the process of illegal immigration (Hoekstra & Orozco-Aleman, 2021). People move from one country or state to another due to various effects in the form of cultural, social, economic, and political factors whereby the contexts which occur may lead to the existence of illegal immigration in this case. Firstly, one of the causes of illegal immigration is global poverty, an economic factor. Most countries and states tend to be mostly poor and seem to be still developing. Therefore, individual citizens from such countries cannot endure such situations. They tend to use illegal means to get to the developed countries to get healthy and sustainable lives there (Blunt, 2018). Some people from such developing countries and states sacrifice themselves to be taken as a slave to the developed countries even without legal documents to confirm their immigration to the foreign countries. In this case, even if they are mistreated, they are not entitled to any law since they are not fully confirmed citizens of the foreign countries because they moved from their countries due to poverty.
Secondly, war and political stability are other causes that have led to many cases of illegal; immigration among many individuals fleeing from their counties in whichever ways possible so that they can protect their lives (Macias-Rojas, 2018). Many countries have experienced political instability whereby war has put the lives of citizens in those countries to be in danger. Sometimes, the citizens are not allowed to move out of their countries for various reasons and the directives from the government. For instance, most public offices were closed during the war, and it was not easy to get services from government departments such as the immigration offices. When such situations occur, the citizens, especially those around the borders of the neighboring countries, tend to run for safety even without waiting for clearances from the immigration offices hence being termed illegal immigration. Sometimes, citizens from neighboring countries are tempted to move to countries where there is a war to help their friends and even relatives. When such cases of war ended, some of them settled in the countries they moved to, which became one way of promoting illegal immigration.
Overpopulation is another factor that has led to the evolution and occurrence of the process of illegal immigration around the globe. Usually, when population growth is very high, there are high chances that the given area of an environment, the state or country, will not be able to carry the population that exceeds its limit. The case is widespread in the developing countries whereby the points of overpopulation have affected the standard addressing of the issues and concerns of all people by the government. When overpopulation is overpopulation, the country is likely to undergo resource depletion since they will all be used up. Other people will not have access to them but only be limited to a few individuals. Public facilities such as schools and hospitals will be overcrowded, and even the level and quality of services will be shallow since the resources are also limited. Therefore, it forces some individuals to move to other countries using illegal means to access resources that they cannot do in their countries of origin. Sometimes, the government itself is engaged in exporting surplus citizens to foreign countries through illegal means such as corruption or even taking them as enslaved people, which is against human rights.
Consequently, the need to enhance the process of family reunification is also another factor that promotes illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants tend to seek to live with the people they love, especially the family members who are already residents in the foreign country. In this case, the family members who are legal residents of that foreign country are the ones that apply for the visas to be used by the members who need to reunite with them. However, these visas are usually limited to a certain number of tears that they are supposed to take before they expire, hence the need to renew. Sometimes, when those visas have passed, the visiting members may not go and restore them, and in this case, they decide to stay there more than the required and specified time on the visa by the respective immigration authorities. Therefore, such people are then termed illegal immigrants by that time when they do not have any documents to confirm their presence in those foreign countries.
Discussion
Illegal immigration is a global issue in many countries and states; various impacts are associated. Therefore, it is termed the effects of illegal immigration, which tend to have either positive or negative impacts depending on the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects.
Effects of illegal immigration
One of the effects of illegal immigration involves influencing political changes in different ways. Due to the increased number of immigrants via illegal means, the political landscape and shape of the related countries have been changing at a higher rate. Illegal immigrants tend to have extended families over time, and they start demanding political representation in government in the future. In such cases, the host countries are thus forced to cater to the needs of all the immigrants that exist in their countries since sometimes the government is usually unable to deport all the illegal immigrants from the legal ones. It thus creates pressure on the government, as seen in the United States, where immigration has taken a different path where illegal immigrants are many and have changed the shape of politics (Babar Taj, 2019). It has also affected the presidential elections, especially when it comes to the one man, one vote aspect where the immigrants dominate many local areas hence involving the size of the Electoral college in conducting elections.
Economically, the increase in the cases of illegal immigration leads to an increase in the rate of unemployment among the locals in the host countries. Usually, the immigrants are willing to work at even cheap costs and low-income rates compared to the locals, which influences most companies to go for the immigrants than the locals. Similarly, since most immigrants are doing mainly odd jobs, they contribute less in payment of taxes (Hall, 1980). However, when it comes to the services, they have a high demand for social services such as education and health, which overburdens the government of host countries.
On the other hand, illegal immigration contributes to the countries’ economic growth that has provided hostage to them. Since most employers prefer the immigrants to carry out the odd jobs in their companies, the more they employ them, the more they work and increase the Gross Domestic Product and the net profit, which leads to an increase in the economic growth (Chassambouli, 2020). It thus helps to increase the attraction of many foreign investors to such companies due to the displayed cases of increase in the rate of production over time. It even encourages the employment of more immigrants since they are given such priorities as they are not discriminative in terms of wages.
Management of illegal immigration
Illegal immigration is a significant problem in the current world. There is a need to control the rate at which it happens by taking several measures by both individuals and the respective authorities (Chiswick, 1988). There is the need to limit border crossings by the respective countries, especially by checking on the legibility o individuals on whether they have legal documents or not. In collaboration with the government, the relevant authorities need to use better data analysis to assist lawmakers in drafting good policies and rules that regulate illegal immigration. The need to encourage recognition of the immigrants’ vulnerabilities by representing them should be done so that they do not create a lot of pressure on the host governments (Jacobs, 1985).
Also, countries should put in place alternative ways that their citizens can use if they want to move from one country to another in case of any reasons that may arise (Dula, Kahana &Lecker, 2006). The citizens are also supposed to be educated on how they can decide to move from one country to another without using illegal ways to avoid the penalties that may have been put in place and reduce conflicts. The government is also supposed to educate the citizens on the methods of family planning to control the rate of population growth to minimize overpopulation cases so that all of them are catered for in-service production (Figgou, 2015). Lastly, the government in developing countries should diversify the investment of more resources on local projects to reduce poverty to avoid the cases of illegal immigration by their citizens.
Conclusion
To sum up, illegal immigration needs to be critically analyzed. The situation under which one enters a foreign country without legality is assessed before classifying them as illegal or legal immigrants. Thus, some future changes need to be made, especially when drafting the laws to restrict illegal immigration. Some individuals have good potential to help foreign countries in different fields, but they are denied access, and such issues need to be looked at.
References
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Hoekstra, M., & Orozco-Aleman, S. (2021). Illegal Immigration: The Trump Effect. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3866342
Figgou, L. (2015). Constructions of ‘Illegal’ Immigration and Entitlement to Citizenship: Debating an Immigration Law in Greece. Journal Of Community &Amp; Applied Social Psychology, 26(2), 150-163. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2242
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