Immigration is the act of traveling into a new country and settling permanently. People migrate for different reasons but majorly in search of better living conditions and greener pastures. On the other hand, emigration implies leaving one’s country. The two concepts are interrelated and happen simultaneously in that as one moves into another country, they are said to have immigrated and emigrated from their original state. Both immigration and emigration have serious impacts on the affected countries, hence they have been subjects of debate in most countries in the world.
First, migration affects the global labor market. It increases the labor supply and threatens the wages of the natives in the countries people have immigrated to. Salaries for the local natives decline as the immigrants come in with better skills and qualifications in search of opportunities that do not exist in their home countries. As such, companies are forced to invest to offset the inevitable declines of capital per worker. Competition for jobs rises, and locals are often on the receiving end as, in most cases, the immigrants are better skilled and qualified in the job market. The situation is likely to cause xenophobic thoughts in the locals that feel shortchanged by the process. Moreover, there is occasioned brain drain in the countries the immigrants move out from. The countries lose a critical skilled force that would have steered their economies immensely. As a result, migration has become a major subject of policy formulation and regulation to avoid harming local and foreign job markets.
Nevertheless, from a positive perspective, migration leads to accelerated economic growth. Many nations in the world have been built by immigrants whose immense contribution spurs economic growth and better living conditions. The labor force is augmented in size, and the tax revenues are significantly boosted, hence more revenues for the countries. Immigrants often arrive in their new countries with little or no wealth and, therefore, will toil to make a living for themselves. They invest in businesses and employ locals hence diversifying the economy and impacting it positively. When more people are participating in the economy, growth is realized. Additionally, the immigrants bring in a new set of fresh and new ideas that rejuvenate and grow existing businesses through corporate exchanges and benchmarks.
The United States, as a major immigration destination for people from all over the world, has been a beneficiary of the migration process. There are many top businesses that have been started by immigrants to the US that are employing many US locals and contributing to the growth of the country. A good example is Apple, a company that was started by Steve Jobs, a son of an immigrant, Abdul Fattah Jandali, from Syria. The company is a global brand and top employer that contributes immensely to the US revenues in the form of taxation. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, is a son of a Cuban immigrant and is among the richest people not only in the US but also globally. Google founder, Sergey Brin, is another immigrant with impeccable footprints on the US economy. The list can continue, but it is indisputable that immigrants have played a key role in growing the United States to what it is today.
The UK is the other major migration destination that has benefited from migration in a great way. In the country, immigrants’ effect has been felt in the health sector. Immigrants to the UK work in the less lucrative jobs in the National Health Service (NHS) to address the UK severe shortages in staffing (Alderwick and Allen 2019). Since the local job market has not done much to address the shortage, the country will continue relying on international recruitment to quench its shortage of health workers or else it will risk a serious deterioration of the essential health services.
Reference
Alderwick, Hugh, and Lucinda Allen. 2019. “Immigration and the NHS: The Evidence.” The Health Foundation. Web.