Term Paper on "Illegal Immigrant"

Term Paper 7 pages (3043 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Illegal Immigration

Immigration is the act of relocating to another country or region, whether temporarily or permanently.

An immigrant is a person who intends to stay permanently, in contrast to a casual visitor or traveler. Immigration is a worldwide phenomenon. From the 17th century to the 19th century, millions of Europeans migrated to North and South America, eastern and southern Africa, Australia, and Asia. Many of these immigrants resettled in colonies established by their home countries.

Most modern immigrants, like the colonists of the past, are motivated to relocate far from their original homes by the desire to improve their economic situation, hoping that they will not have to face the same problemes they have in their own countries.

The most known reasons of immigration can have an economic nature, because people want to escape poverty; can also be educational, trying to find a better place, that offers high standards of learning or profesional, for the people who want to find employment, or to search for an occupation that is available and which coresponds with their spacialization and their level of training. Another reason that causes immigration can be political; people who want to escape dictatorship or other unfair governments, or just because they disagree over government, also in case of persecution and oppression, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and bullying. Many people leave their countries when they retire for better wather conditions, or for lower costs; they go to other countries in case of war to avoid a draft or military attacks, or because of the religious problems if they were not allowed to practice their own religion in some cases and in some situations because of the natural disasters for example the tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, forced a lot of people to abandon their homes.

The most common is the economic reason. Wage rates and living expenses vary greatly between different countries; poor individuals of third world countries can have far higher standards of living in developed countries than in their originating countries, as not very well off but financially independent people from highly developed countries can live better in a less developed country where living standards are lower. A good example of the former is all the immigrants from Mexico and Central American counties who live in the United States, while a good example of the latter is the many retired British ex-pats who choose to make their life in Spain. For the poor in undeveloped countries, the economic pressure to migrate is so high that when legal means are restricted, people immigrate illegally. In general, people are considered immigrants if they reside in the new country for more than one year.

Some countries, such as Japan, allow for little immigration. In countries that do allow immigration there is disagreement over the numbers, policies, and implementation. Those who support more restricted immigration believe that the current levels of immigration serve to depress wages and circumvent unionisation, and contribute to unsustainable levels of population growth. Others disagree, believing that overly restrictive immigration policies and practices would not address the economic demand for work emanating from wealthier countries, would not harm the security or cohesiveness of the country, and would endanger the lives of legitimate refugees from political or racial oppression. Immigration has become an increasingly controversial topic among environmental activists in recent years, especially within the Sierra Club in the United States. Some environmentalists concerned with overpopulation favor limiting immigration as a means of isolating the effects of human population growth, while others argue that overpopulation and environmental degradation are global problems that should be addressed by other methods. Other sources sustained that the problem is not the level of immigration, but the policies used to integrate the immigrants in the political, social, and especially economic environment - something that might explain the relative success of immigration in some countries, such as Canada.

For the immigrants there are rules which allows them to stay an a certain country but also forbits them some rights. For example, there is the immigration policy of a state that affects the transit of persons across its borders, but especially those that intend to work and to remain in the country. Immigration policies can range from isolationism, where no migration at all is allowed, to free immigration, where most forms of migration are allowed. Immigration policy is often closely related to other policies, such as The Tax, Tariff and Trade rules that determine what goods migrants may bring with them, what services they may perform while temporarily in the country, etc., and who is allowed to remain, e.g. The European Union has no immigration restrictions within it, any resident of any of the signatory nations may move and seek work anywhere within. Investment policy that permits wealthy immigrants to invest in businesses in exchange for favorable treatment, early issuance of passports and permanent resident status. Agricultural policy that may make exemptions for migrant farm workers, who typically enter a country only for the harvest season and then return home to a developing nation (such as Mexico or Jamaica which often send such workers to U.S. And Canada respectively).

An important aspect of immigration policy is the treatment of refugees, more or less helpless or stateless people who throw themselves on the mercy of the state they enter, seeking refuge from some poor treatment in their country of origin. With the rise of terrorism worldwide, another major concern is the national security of nations that let masses of people across their borders. These concerns often lead to intrusive security searches and tighter visa requirements, which discourage all forms of immigration, and even discourage temporary visitors to a great degree.

There were also many dabates concerning the change of the immigrant policy, and the government came up with the immigration reform. In a certain sense, reform can be general enough to include promoted, expanded, or open immigration, but in reality discussions of reform often deal with the aspect of reducing or eliminating immigration altogether. In that sense, reform typically refers to a wide spectrum of viewpoints which may include anti-immigration and immigration reduction. On the other hand the reform tries to increase legal immigration while descreasing illegal immigration.

Many whealty states simply attract people from poor countries, who just want to find a place to work and to have a better life. But this migration creates shifts in the ethnic balance of a nation that make local people worried about their stability and way of life. Societies commonly have systems of social benefits and privileges for their citizens. If social benefits originally offered exclusively to citizens are extended to include undocumented or illegal immigrants, there may be a perceived social injustice as to the balance of benefits given to different members of society.

The opinions of this matter are somehow divided. The free market libertarians believe that immigration with no restrictions will bring prosperity. The protectionists also consider that the immigrants are good for the nation welfare, because the government use inexpensive or free immigration benefits, rather than corporate resources, to compensate employees. The nationalist have opposite oppinions concerning immigration and belive that the borders should be close and there the xenophobes who fear the presence of foreigners, bacause they belive that immigrants are destroying the traditionals values of the nation. Though these views are not shared by all or even most immigration reductionists. Still others feel that the focus should be taken off of immigration control and placed on the importance of equal rights for immigrants to avoid what they believe to be corporate exploitation of immigrant poverty.

The illegal immigrants, are considered the persons who pass the national borders of another country without complying with the legal requirements. There are many people who choos this way because they don't have possibilities to satisfy the demands for a legal status. The terms that refer to an illegal immigrant are many: illegal, illegal migrant, undocumented alien or immigrant, criminal alien, unauthorized migrant

Some illegal immigrants enter a country legally and then overstay or violate their visa, while others follow underground routes, such as illegally crossing the border without being inspected by an immigration officer at a Port of Entry (POE) and/or without a valid passport and visa. The other way of becoming an illegal immigrant being for bureaucratic reasons. For example, one can be allowed to remain in a country - or protected from expulsion -, because he/she needs special treatment for a medical condition, without being able to regularize his/her situation and obtain a work and/or residency permit. For this reason, categories of people being neither illegal immigrants nor legal citizens are created, living in a judicial "no man's land." Another example is formed by children of foreigners born in countries observing jus soli ("right of territory"), such as France. In this last country, one may obtain French nationality if he was born in France - but, due to recent legislative changes, he only obtains it at the age of eighteen,… READ MORE

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