Immigration is one of the mostly contested topics in the world. The idea of people from one country to the other sparks a heated debate regarding the impact that these immigrants have on the new country. Most governments oppose the idea of immigrants moving into their country because, in most cases, immigrants are associated with not so good news. For example, most immigrants act as the agents of transportation of illegal goods into a country which is against the laws of the country and are considered to increase the completion for local jobs (Esses, Brochu & Dickson, 2011) . Other ills that are associated with immigrants include transmission of diseases, causing overpopulation in the new country among others ( Roy, 2020) . These ills are what causes most governments to tighten their rules against immigrants thus making it hard for the immigrants to move into the country. Nevertheless, despite these ills, it is an undeniable fact that immigrants have a positive impact on the economy of the country that they visit and thus contribute to more economic growth.
One of the ways that immigrants help the economy of the new country is by increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Immigrants contribute to an increased workforce into their new country ( McCarthy, 2017; Junankar, 2016) . In US, it is estimated that immigrants contribute to almost a third of the workforce in some industries (Abramitzky & Boustan, 2017) . In 2018, statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that 63.4% of foreign-born adults were employed compared to 59.8% of the native adults (Sherman, Trisi, Stone, Gonzales & Parrot, 2020) . This is a fact that cannot be overlooked. It means that the immigrants contribute immensely to the national revenue in terms of taxes which ultimately boosts the GDP of the country. Just as the theory of structural functionalism states, the natives should learnt to work with the immigrants for the betterment of the economy because each person has a unique role that they play in the economy that cannot be overlooked.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Immigrants also help to support the dwindling population in some developed countries. It is a common fact that most of the developed countries such as U.S have a declining native population. This phenomenon is brought about by low birth rate coupled with the aging population. The declining population would mean that these countries would suffer from shortage of labor in the coming days as most of the working native population go into retire (Nelson & Good, 2015) . Recent statistics show that majority of the immigrants are working age as most of them are aged between 18-64 years. Therefore, it would be correct to say that most of the immigrants are fit to fill the gaps left behind by the retired natives ( Ciancio et al, 2019) . Therefore, immigrants help to support the declining population in the developed countries by filling in the gaps left behind by the natives who go into retire and this ensures that the economy remains fully functional.
Immigrants also contribute to the development of certain industries which would otherwise perform dismally. Immigrants increase the demand of certain products in their new country which ultimately translates to more growth in these industries. One such example is the housing industry (Hirschman, 2014) . The dwindling population especially in developing countries mean that the demand for houses would decrease over time. However, the entry of immigrants into the country creates an increase in demand of houses which gives a new lease of life to the industry which would have otherwise collapsed (Perez, 2020). Recent data from Census Bureau data show that in U.S, the immigrant population account for 39.5% of household ownership. These impressive statistics mean that the immigrants give a new lease of life to industries which were on the verge of collapsing.
Immigrants inject new knowledge and skills into the new economy which helps to grow it. It is important to note that immigrants are not as useless as one would like to think of them. Some of the immigrants come armed with new knowledge and skills that they teach to the natives through social interaction as the theory of symbolic interaction stipulates and these new skills can be used to grow the economy (Hagan, Lowe & Quingla, 2011, Bodden, 2018). For example, an immigrant from a country whose IT is more advanced than the new country is likely to transfer these skills to the natives through social interaction. The new skills gained from the immigrants can therefore be used to improve the IT sector of their host country. Therefore, immigrants act as carriers of new knowledge and skills into the host country which contributes positively to the development of the economy of the host country.
In as much as immigrants need the new opportunities found within the foreign countries, the foreign countries need the immigrants as well considering the positive contributions that they have on the economy of the host countries. Therefore, foreign governments should relax their immigration laws in order to enable foreigners enter the country with ease. Moreover, governments should offer incentives to immigrants in order to entice them into moving into the country. What is important is to ensure that immigrants are screened properly before entering the country to ensure that they don’t carry with them illegal goods into the country as well as screen them for diseases to ensure that they don’t act as agents of disease transmission. Once they get assimilated into the country, the government should also strive to educate them on what is expected of them in the new country so that they become part and parcel of the country instead of appearing like foreigners. That way, they will feel more welcome and they will be able to push the economic agenda of the country forward.
References
Abramitzky, R., & Boustan, L. (2017). Immigration in American Economic History. Journal Of Economic Literature , 55 (4), 1311-1345. doi: 10.1257/jel.20151189
Bodden, J. R. (2018). Deconstructing development: Immigration, society and economy in the early 21st-century Cayman Islands. In Euro-Caribbean Societies in the 21st Century (pp. 138-147). Routledge.
Ciancio, A., & García-Jimeno, C. (2019). The political economy of immigration enforcement: Conflict and cooperation under federalism (No. w25766). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Esses, V., Brochu, P., & Dickson, K. (2011). Economic Costs, Economic Benefits, and Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Immigration. Analyses Of Social Issues And Public Policy , 12 (1), 133-137. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2011.01269.x
Hagan, J., Lowe, N., & Quingla, C. (2011). Skills on the Move. Work And Occupations , 38 (2), 149-178. doi: 10.1177/0730888410397918
Hirschman, C. (2014). Immigration to the United States: Recent Trends and Future Prospects. Malays Journal Of Economic Studies , 51 (1), 69-85.
Junankar, P. R. (Ed.). (2016). Economics of Immigration: The Impact of Immigration on the Economy . Springer.
Kerr, S., & Kerr, W. (2011). Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey . Retrieved from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/09-013_15702a45-fbc3-44d7-be52-477123ee58d0.pdf
McCarthy, J. (2017). Americans more positive about effects of immigration. Gallup Poll. Retrieved on July , 18 , 2017.
Perez, A. (2020). The Effect of Immigration in the Economy of the United States (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University).
Roy, N. (2020). Exploring the Tripod: Immigration, Security, and Economy in the Post-9/11 United States . Lexington Books.
Sherman, A., Trisi, D., Stone, C., Gonzales, S., & Parrot, S. (2020). Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rationale. Retrieved 29 September 2020, from https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/immigrants-contribute-greatly-to-us-economy-despite-administrations
