Unit 3: Migration
12/2/16
Original article can be found here
Synopsis:
Britain is currently actively working to
reduce their net-migration. This movement has increased ever since David
Cameron pledged to reduce it back in 2010 and has received more attention than
ever before. Migration is an issue showing up in all of Britain’s politics
and media. The goal for the government was to decrease the net migration to be
below 100,000 however now it is more than three times as much as that at
327,000 people. Britain however, is the only country in Europe with an official
maximum net migration target, and seems to be the most concerned with
it. Net migration has been even higher than statistics predicted which is
frustrating for the government. However, it still has a lower people to
migrant ratio compared to the other European countries. Other countries
have recognized how essential immigrants are to their country and
economy. Nonetheless, Britain continues to work hard to try to decrease these rates
and regards immigration as a huge problem.
Analysis:
Britain has put a lot of focus on dealing with their migration
problem. Their net migration is much more than what they want it to be.
Their numbers don’t differ too much from the rest of Europe and are in fact a
bit lower but to them it is a bigger issue. Britain has a 6.1 per 1000 people
migrant ratio which isn’t that high compared to other countries. For
example, in Germany it is 14.1, in Sweden 8.1, and in Luxembourg 19.6. These
countries haven’t made controlling migration as much of a priority as
Britain has even though their problem is seemingly bigger. They have recognized
that immigration is essential for a successful economy and country as we
have learned in class. However, in Britain strong public pressure has made the
government implement new immigration policies. Currently the international
immigrants are coming from four main groups. First, it is from British
citizens moving out and into the country. The next group is the people from the
European Economic Area (EFA) that they legally can’t limit. The third category
is students and skilled professionals on work visas. The majority of migrants
are in this category and are helpful to the country. The students provide
financial contributions to Britain and the skilled professionals fill vital
gaps in the labor market so it wouldn’t make sense to limit them. The fourth
category is asylum seekers. These people are only a fraction of the
migrants and have come as refugees because of bad conditions in their
own countries. They have increased due to the recent issues in the Middle East
as well as other places as we learned in class. This type of migration is
sometimes voluntary and sometimes forced. However, they are
legally protected by the International Human Rights norms so Britain can’t do
too much about it. Therefore, Britain has to find some other way to decrease
migration because doing so in these four categories wouldn’t make sense. Some
say that the Brexit can help lower the rates though however that is falsely so.
The push and pull factors that influence migratory flow
are beyond legislative control and policies. There isn’t much a government can
do about migration without hurting its economy because migrant workers
are at the core of any successful country. For Britain however net migration
might actually decrease after the Brexit but only because it will no longer be desirable
to foreign and domestic workers and could actually end up hurting the
country. Overall, Britain is very focused on reducing net-migration
rates but I think there are better ways and things to work on to make the
country more successful.
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