The main anti-immigration themes include costs of migrants (potential free-riding on existing welfare systems), labor competition; environmental issues (the impact of population growth); national security (concerns of insular immigrant groups & terrorism against the host country) and growing crime^[39]; lack of coordination & cooperation among citizens (differences of language, conventions, culture); and the loss of national identity and culture (including the nature of the nation-state itself).

Health arguments

Immigration from areas of high incidence is thought to have fueled the resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), chagas, hepatitis, and leprosy in areas of low incidence. To reduce the risk of diseases in low-incidence areas, the main countermeasure has been the screening of immigrants on arrival.^[40] According to CDC, TB cases among foreign-born individuals remain disproportionately high, at nearly nine times the rate of U.S.-born persons. In 2003, nearly 26 percent of foreign-born TB patients in the United States were from Mexico. Another third of the foreign-born cases were among those from the Philippines, Vietnam, India and China, the CDC report said.^[41][42][43]

The history of HIV/AIDS in the United States began in about 1969, when HIV likely entered the United States through a single infected immigrant from Haiti.^[44][45]

Economic arguments

Economic needs-driven immigration is opposed by labor-market protectionists, often arguing from economic nationalism. The core of their arguments is that a nation's jobs are the 'property' of that nation, and that allowing foreigners to take them is equivalent to a loss of that property. They may also criticise immigration of this type as a form of corporate welfare, where business is indirectly subsidised by government expenditure to promote the immigration and the assimilation of the immigrants.^[46] A more common criticism is that the immigrant employees are almost always paid less than a non-immigrant worker in the same job, and that the migration depresses wages, especially as migrants are usually not unionised. Other groups feel that the focus should be not on migration control, but on equal rights for the migrants, to avoid their exploitation.

Concerns regarding the cost of immigration, such as the provision of schools for the additional population, are prominent in the United States and Canada. See Economic impact of immigration to Canada. Although much current research has pointed to the fact that the U.S. and Canada are actually dependent on migrant labor, see The Center for U.S. - Mexico Immigration Analysis.

Scholars have come to various opinions about the economic effects of immigration. Those who find that immigrants produce a negative effect on the US economy often focus on the difference between taxes paid and government services received and wage-lowering effects among low-skilled native workers.^[47][48] The economic impact of immigration differs by immigration category. For example, according to Statistics Canada, there are significant differences in the labour force participation rates. 2001 labour statistics by immigration category:^[49]

Labour force rates	Family	Skilled worker principal applicants	Skilled worker dependants	Other economic	Refugees	All immigrants
Participation rate	59%	91%	63%	48%	44%	70%
Employment rate	39%	60%	36%	29%	21%	44%
Unemployment rate	34%	34%	43%	40%	51%	37%
Rank of total number of immigrants in 2005[50]	2nd	3rd	1st	5th	4th

Data source: Statistics Canada, 2001, Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada.

For clarity: Employment Rate = Participation Rate * (1 - Unemployment Rate)

In 2001, the overall unemployment rate of immigrants was 37%. Combined with the overall participation rate of 70%, this means that only 44% of landed immigrants aged 15 years and higher were working in 2001 (i.e., a majority of 56% were not working). The 44% employment rate was significantly lower than the average 2001 employment rate in Canada of 61%.^[51] Immigrant unemployment levels do not reduce to the Canadian average during at least the first 10 years of residing in Canada.^[52]

Employment statistics also bring into question whether skilled worker immigrants, with a 34% unemployment rate,^[49] are successfully meeting existing labour market needs in Canada, and Statistics Canada explains that although progress was made in reducing poverty with pre-1990 residents of Canada (as measured by the low-income rate), this progress was more than offset by the income profile of new immigrants, resulting in a net widening of the income inequality gap in Canada during the 1990s.^[53] And a more recent 2007 Statistics Canada study shows that the income profile of recent immigrants deteriorated by yet another significant amount from 2000 to 2004.^[54] Another Statistics Canada study also shows that immigration reduces overall wage levels in Canada.^[55]

Security arguments

In the United States, concerned parties argue that an influx of immigrants, especially less educated immigrants, is responsible for an increase in theft and violent crime in the areas they migrate to. This concern is prevalent in many strata of society, from the common man (a 2000 survey of Americans found 73 percent felt immigrants were dangerous because they brought crime^[56]) to the highest levels of the US Government (as clearly stated in a speech by George W. Bush on May 15, 2006^[57]). As Professor Ruben Rumbaut and Walter Ewing have noted, this impression is reinforced and magnified by television shows and movies such as The Godfather, The Sopranos, Scarface, Rush Hour and West Side Story that strongly correlate ethnic immigrant groups with organized crime.^[58]

Statistics, however, do not consistently support this argument. While one 2005 report stated that 21% of all crimes are committed by illegal immigrants, other reports released in 2008 showed that immigrants were anywhere from three to five times less likely to commit crimes than native-born American residents.^[59]

Some groups argue that immigration debate increases one type of crime: violent crimes by United States-born citizens against immigrants. According to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as debate on the issue of immigration increased and language became more incendiary from 2003 to 2006, hate crimes against Latinos rose by 35%^[60] The anti-immigration group Federation for American Immigration Reform has argued that these statistics are flawed, stating that violence by non-Latino gangs against the Latino organized criminal element are being mistaken for racial violence.^[61]

Nationalistic arguments

Non-economic opposition to immigration is closely associated with nationalism, in Europe a 'nationalist party' is almost a synonym for 'anti-immigration party'.^{[citation needed]} Although traditionally, economic arguments dominated the United States immigration debate, it has become more polarized in recent years, as evidenced by demands to deploy the military to the US borders.^{[citation needed]} The emergence of private border militias in the United States has attracted much media attention.^{[citation needed]} Nevertheless, the southern border of the European Union in the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla has Spanish military and paramilitary Guardia Civil patrols while the US-Mexico is still patrolled by civilian police forces.^{[citation needed]}

Like their Korean neighbors, Japanese tend to equate nationality or citizenship with membership in a single, homogeneous ethnic group or race.^[62] A shared language and culture also are viewed as important elements in Japanese identity. The idea of multiracial or multiethnic nations, like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Netherlands, or the United States, strikes many Japanese as odd or even contradictory. Both Japan and South Korea are among the world's most ethnically homogeneous nations.^[63] Those who were identified as different might be considered "polluted" —- the category applied historically to the outcasts of Japan, particularly the hisabetsu buraku, "discriminated communities," often called burakumin, a term some find offensive —- and thus not suitable as marriage partners or employees.^[64] Men or women of mixed ancestry, those with family histories of certain diseases, and foreigners, and members of minority groups faced discrimination in a variety of forms. In 2005, a United Nations report expressed concerns about racism in Japan and that government recognition of the depth of the problem was not total.^[65][66] The author of the report, Doudou Diène (Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights), concluded after a nine-day investigation that racial discrimination and xenophobia in Japan primarily affects three groups: national minorities, Latin American immigrants of Japanese descent, mainly Japanese Brazilians, and foreigners from "poor" countries.^[67]

The primary argument of some nationalist opponents in Europe and Asia is that immigrants simply do not belong in a nation-state which is by definition intended for another ethnic group.^{[citation needed]} France, therefore, is for the French, Germany is for the Germans, Japan is for the Japanese, and so on. Immigration is seen as altering the ethnic and cultural composition of the national population, and consequently the national character.^{[citation needed]} From a nationalist perspective, high-volume immigration potentially distorts or dilutes their national culture more than is desired or even necessary.^{[citation needed]} Germany, for example, was indeed intended as a state for Germans: the state's policy of mass immigration was not foreseen by the 19th-century nationalist movements.^{[citation needed]} Immigration has forced Germany and other western European states to re-examine their national identity: part of the population is not prepared to redefine it to include immigrants.^{[citation needed]} It is this type of opposition to immigration which generated support for anti-immigration parties such as Vlaams Belang in Belgium, the British National Party in Britain, the Lega Nord in Italy, the Front National in France, and the Lijst Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands.^{[citation needed]}

One of the responses of nation-states to mass immigration is to promote the cultural assimilation of immigrants into the national community, and their integration into the political, social, and economic structures.^{[citation needed]} In the United States, cultural assimilation is traditionally seen as a process taking place among minorities themselves, the 'melting pot'.^{[citation needed]} In Europe, where nation-states have a tradition of national unification by cultural and linguistic policies, variants of these policies have been proposed to accelerate the assimilation of immigrants.^{[citation needed]} The introduction of citizenship tests for immigrants is the most visible form of state-promoted assimilation.^{[citation needed]} The test usually include some form of language exam, and some countries have reintroduced forms of language prohibition.^{[citation needed]}

Environmentalist arguments

Environmentalist opposition to immigration is prominent in Canada, which has the largest absolute numbers of immigrants. Responses to immigration are a controversial topic among environmental activists, especially within the Sierra Club. Some oppose the immigration-driven population growth in the United States as unsustainable, and advocate immigration reduction. Other environmentalists see overpopulation and environmental degradation as global problems, that should be addressed by other methods. Most European countries do not have the high population growth of the United States, and some experience population decline. In such circumstances, the effect of immigration is to reduce decline, or delay its onset, rather than substantially increase the population. The Republic of Ireland is one of the only EU countries comparable to the United States in this respect, since large-scale immigration contributed to substantial population growth.^[68] Spain has also witnessed a recent boost in population due to high immigration.^[69]

Some members of the Australian environmental movement, notably the organisation Sustainable Population Australia, believe that as the driest inhabited continent, Australia cannot continue to sustain its current rate of population growth without becoming overpopulated.^[70] The UK-based Optimum Population Trust supports the view that Australia is overpopulated, and believes that to maintain the current standard of living in Australia, the optimum population is 10 million (rather than the present 20.86 million), or 21 million with a reduced standard of living.^[71]

The USA constitutes approximately 5% of the world's population, but creates about 27% of the world's economy.^[72] In so doing, it consumes about 25% of world's resources,^[73] including approximately 26% of the world's energy,^[74] although having only around 3% of the world's known oil reserves,^[75] and generate approximately 30% of world's waste.^[76][77] The average American's impact on the environment is approximately 250 times greater than the average Sub-Saharan African's.^[78][79] In other words, with current consumption patterns, population growth in the United States is more of a threat to the Earth's environment than population growth in any other part of the world (currently, at least 1.8 million legal and illegal immigrants settle in the United States each year; with the average Hispanic woman giving birth to 3 children in her lifetime).^[80][81]

California's population continues to grow by more than a half million a year and is expected to reach 48 million in 2030. According to the California Department of Water Resources, if more supplies aren't found by 2020, residents will face a water shortfall nearly as great as the amount consumed today.^[82] Los Angeles is a coastal desert able to support at most 1 million people on its own water; the Los Angeles basin now is the core of a megacity that spans 220 miles (350 km) from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. The region's population is expected to reach 22 million by 2020, and 28 million in 2035. The population of California continues to grow by more than a half million a year and is expected to reach 48 million in 2030. Water shortage issues are likely to arise well before then.^[83] California is considering using energy-expensive desalination to solve this problem.^[84]

U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the U.S. population grew by 2.8 million between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005. If current birth and immigration rates were to remain unchanged for another 60 to 70 years, the US population would double to approximately 600 million people.^[85] The Census Bureau's latest estimates actually go so far as to predict that there will be 1 billion Americans in 2100.^[86]

Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that to achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster, the United States must reduce its population by at least one-third, and world population will have to be reduced by two-thirds.^[87] The current U.S. population of more than 300 million and world population exceeding 6.6 billion is, according to Pfeiffer, unsustainable. Fast-shrinking supplies of oil and gas are essential to modern agriculture,^[88] so coming decades could see spiraling food prices without relief and massive starvation on a global level such as never experienced before by the humans.^[89][90]

As political issue

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The political debate about immigration is now a feature of most developed countries.

Some, such as Japan, traditionally found alternate ways of filling the role normally filled by immigrants (for example, greater automation to compensate for labor shortages), and designed immigration laws specifically to prevent immigrants from remaining within the country. However, globalization, as well as low birth rates and an aging work force, has forced even Japan to reconsider its immigration policy.^[91]

Residents of one member nation of the European Union are allowed to work in other member nations with little to no restriction on movement.^[92] Due to this policy, traditionally homogenous countries which usually sent a significant portion of their population overseas, such as Italy and the Republic of Ireland are seeing an influx of immigrants from EU countries with lower per capita annual earning rates, triggering nationwide immigration debates.^[93][94]

Spain, meanwhile, is seeing growing illegal immigration from Africa. As Spain is the closest EU member nation to Africa, it is physically easiest for African emigrants to reach. This has led to debate both within Spain and between Spain and other EU members. Spain has asked for border control assistance from other EU nations; those nations have responded that Spain has brought the wave of African illegals on itself by granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of immigrants.^[95]

The United Kingdom and Germany have seen major immigration since the end of World War II and have been debating the issue for decades. Foreign workers were brought in to those countries to help rebuild after the war, and many stayed. Political debates about immigration typically focus on statistics, the immigration law and policy, and the implementation of existing restrictions.^[96][97] In some European countries the debate in the 1990's was focused on asylum seekers, but restrictive policies within the European Union, as well as a reduction in armed conflict in Europe and neighboring regions, have sharply reduced asylum seekers.^[98]

In the United States political debate on immigration has flared repeatedly since the US became a nation, generally at times when an ethnically distinct group is moving in large numbers to the US.^[99] Since Since September 11, 2001, it has become an extremely hot issue due to perceived security and economic threats from outsiders on one side and a push for more opportunity for legal immigration on the other. It is a central topic of the 2008 election cycle.^[100]

The politics of immigration have become increasingly associated with others issues, such as national security, terrorism, and in western Europe especially, with the presence of Islam as a new major religion. Some components of conservative movements see an unassimilated, economically deprived, and generally hostile immigrant population as a threat to national stability^[101]; other elements of conservative movements welcome immigrant labor. Those with security concerns cite the 2005 civil unrest in France that point to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy as an example of the value conflicts arising from immigration of Muslims in Western Europe. Because of all these associations, immigration has become an emotional political issue in many European nations.

Ethics

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Although freedom of movement is often recognized as a civil right, the freedom only applies to movement within national borders: it may be guaranteed by the constitution or by human rights legislation. Additionally, this freedom is often limited to citizens and excludes others. No state currently allows full freedom of movement across its borders, and international human rights treaties do not confer a general right to enter another state. According to Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, citizens may not be forbidden to leave their country. There is no similar provision regarding entry of non-citizens. Those who reject this distinction on ethical grounds, argue that the freedom of movement both within and between countries is a basic human right, and that the restrictive immigration policies, typical of nation-states, violate this human right of freedom of movement. Such arguments are common among anti-state ideologies like anarchism and libertarianism. Note that a right to freedom of entry would not, in itself, guarantee immigrants a job, housing, health care, or citizenship.

Where immigration is permitted, it is typically selective. Ethnic selection, such as the White Australia policy, has generally disappeared, but priority is usually given to the educated, skilled, and wealthy. Less privileged individuals, including the mass of poor people in low-income countries, cannot avail of these immigration opportunities. This inequality has also been criticised as conflicting with the principle of equal opportunities, which apply (at least in theory) within democratic nation-states. The fact that the door is closed for the unskilled, while at the same time many developed countries have a huge demand for unskilled labour, is a major factor in illegal immigration. The contradictory nature of this policy - which specifically disadvantages the unskilled immigrants while exploiting their labour - has also been criticised on ethical grounds.

Immigration polices which selectively grant freedom of movement to targeted individuals are intended to produce a net economic gain for the host country. They can also mean net loss for a poor donor country through the loss of the educated minority - the brain drain. This can exacerbate the global inequality in standards of living that provided the motivation for the individual to migrate in the first place. An example of the 'competition for skilled labour' is active recruitment of health workers by First World countries, from the Third World.

See also

• Immigration policy
• Nativism (politics)
• Aliyah, the Hebrew term for Jewish immigration to Israel
• Economic impact of immigration to Canada
• Illegal Immigration
• First Generation Immigrant
• Right of foreigners to vote
• The Center for U.S. - Mexico Immigration Analysis

References

Further reading

• Center for Immigration Studies Refer to "Publications" for free research on illegal immigration, demographic trends, terrorism concerns, environmental impact, and many other subjects.
• Peter C. Meilander (2001),Towards a Theory of Immigration, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0312240349
• Philippe Legrain Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, ISBN 0316732486
• Joe Freeman (2007), Living and Working in the European Union for Non-EU Nationals, Lulu.com. ISBN 0-9786254-0-4.
• Isabel Valle. Fields of Toil: A Migrant Family's Journey, ISBN 978-0-87422-101-5
• Lorane A. West. Color: Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest, ISBN 978-0-87422-274-6
• Massey, Douglas S., Arango, Joaquín, Graeme, Hugo, Kouaouci, Ali, Pellegrino, Adela and Taylor, J. Edward (2005), Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-928276-5.
• Dowell Myers (2007), Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, Russell Sage Foundation, ISBN 978-0-87154-636-4.
• Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America, Harvard University Press 2006, ISBN 0674022181
• Philippe Legrain, Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, Little Brown 2007, ISBN 0316732486
• Ruben Rumbaut and Walter Ewing, "The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates among Native and Foreign-Born Men," The Immigration Policy Center (Spring 2007). http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/sr_feb07_resources.shtml
• The website for all immigrants in America - Everything about U.S. immigration: http://www.immigrationnewsman.com
• Harald Bauder (2006), Labor Movement: How Migration Regulates Labor Markets, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Douglas S. Massey, Beyond the Border Buildup: Towards a New Approach to Mexico-U.S. Migration, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [September 2005] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/policy_reports_2005_beyondborder.shtml
• Immigration Policy Center, Economic Growth & Immigration: Bridging the Demographic Divide, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [November 2005] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/special_report2005_bridging.shtml
• Walter A. Ewing, Border Insecurity: U.S. Border-Enforcement Policies and National Security, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [Spring 2006] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/border_insecurity_spring06.shtml
• Susan C. Pearce, Immigrant Women in the United States: A Demographic Portrait, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [Summer 2006] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/im_women_summer06.shtml
• Ruben G. Rumbaut, and Walter A. Ewing, The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation: Incarceration Rates Among Native and Foreign-Born Men, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [Spring 2007] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/sr_feb07.shtml
• Jill Esbenshade, Division and Dislocation: Regulating Immigration through Local Housing Ordinances, Immigration Policy Center, the American Immigration Law Foundation [Summer 2007] http://www.ailf.org/ipc/special_report/sr_sept07.shtml
• Jeffrey S. Passel and Roberto Suro; Rise, Peak and Decline: Trends in U.S. Immigration; Pew Hispanic Center (Sep. 2005) http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=53
• Jeffrey S. Passel, Senior Research Associate; Estimates of the Size and Characteristics of the Undocumented Population; Pew Hispanic Center (March 2005) http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=44
• Jeffrey S. Passel; Growing Share of Immigrants Choosing Naturalization; Pew Hispanic Center (March 2007) http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=74

External links

The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links.

• Center for Immigration Studies research organization aimed at immigration reduction
• Stalker's Guide to International Migration - Comprehensive interactive website on migration
• Casahistoria - European emigration since 1800 - links to 19th & 20th century global European emigration
• The Center for U.S. - Mexico Immigration Analysis [4]
• Migration Information Source
• December 18 International advocacy and resource centre on the human rights of migrants.
• The History of Immigration, by Jorge Majfud
• Eurasylum Many relevant documents on immigration, asylum and refugee policy, and human trafficking/smuggling internationally
• International Organisation for Migration
• UNESCO Programme on International Migration and Multicultural Policies
• UN - International Migration and Development
• OECD Migration Data
• BBC News Factfile: Global migration
• The Foreigner and the Right to Justice in the Aftermath of September 11th François Crépeau, Canada Research Chair in International Migration Law University of Montreal
• Immigration Newspaper Archive A collection of more than 50,000 searchable newspaper articles on Immigration.
• Migration on the Diplomacy Monitor
• A world map with territory sizes adjusted to the number of immigrants living in those countries
• Observatorio de la Inmigración Marroquí en España - TEIM Taller de Estudios Internacionales Mediterráneos - Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• New Routes to Community Health. A program of the Robert Wood Johnson and Benton Foundations
• Empowerment & Migration : Events and materials on migration
• Golden Venture A documentary film on the Golden Venture incident of 1993, a crucial turning point in US immigration policy.

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