Immigration

From Wikinfo

Immigration is the movement of human population, other than temporary movements such as those of casual visitors or travellers, across national borders. Therefore, immigration is only as old as the nation state. Prior to the nation state, the movement of human population is regarded as migration.

Immigration is the reverse of emigration. However, the bringing in of slaves was not usually considered immigration. The long term and/or permanent movement of human population in general, whether into, out of, or within countries (or before the existence of recognised countries) is regarded as migration; this is often hard to distinguish from nomadic or seasonal movement.

Throughout the world immigration is a controversial issue. All developed nations put severe restrictions on who can immigrate to them. These are usually justified on economic grouds with worries that many poor workers would lower wages and the nation's standard of living as well. Usually, however, the actual reason for limiting immigration is cultural. This is felt most strongly in homogenous old world nations where citizenship was long tied to a person having deep historical roots in the country. Western European nations, Japan, and others countries have long been deeply ocnerned about their national culture being subsumed by a tied of immigrants. This concern is especially high when the immigratns are of differing race or religion than the majority. Most European nations have relatively modest levels of immigration, but concern is so high that many of them have far right parties almost solely concerned with the immigration issue.

Only four countries in the world actively encourage large numbers of immigrants. Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. These nations still have strict requirements insisting immigrants demonstrate employable skills or economic clout before being permited to immigrate.

The majority of immigration occurs because for economic reasons. Skilled and unskilled individuals can have far higher standards of living in developed nations than in their homes. The pressure to immigrate is so high that when legal means are restircted illegal immigrations very quickly becomes an important industry.

Economists have argued that a free global labour market with no restrictions on immigrations would, in the long run, be one of the greatest possible boosts to global prosperity and would have a vastly more beneficial economic impact than free trade of goods and capital.