Before I go into detail explaining how immigration works, let me start by separating the two categories of immigration; Illegal and legal immigration.
Both these types of immigration have their pros and cons for different types of people and it would be unfair to talk about immigration without dividing it up into two categories, which is exactly what this article is all about.
Legal Immigrant: Any person who is residing in a country with the necessary papers and has been allowed to reside by the government without being a citizen of the country is a legal immigrant.
Illegal Immigrant: Any person who is residing in a country without the necessary papers and has not made the government aware of his/ her residency in the country is an illegal immigrant.
Illegal Immigration: The Pros
Illegal immigration has different effects throughout the globe, in the United States, it primarily takes the form of Central Americans from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala fleeing crime, poverty, and gang violence. According to testimonies from many Asylum speakers(which might be false), many of them were fleeing gang violence. Meanwhile, 8000 miles away in India, the main immigrants who enter illegally are those who are fleeing religious persecution and they often have scars and wounds on their bodies to prove this.
In Europe, illegal immigrants often enter into port cities on crowded boats with inadequate safety arrangements from North and Sub- Saharan Africa, fleeing war and genocides. The most obvious argument in legalizing illegal immigrants is, obviously, to help save people and to prevent them from dying. Allowing them into their chosen country of refuge provides them access to a safe and secure life, who would vote against that? Continuing, illegal immigrants take up many jobs that ordinary citizens simply do not want to take. For example, immigrants in the United States make up 50% of janitors, maids, and other low- skilled workers. These immigrants are essential to the economy. Continuing, they are a huge boon for private Corporations looking for cheap labour as illegal immigrants do not have the same benefits and labour protections as a legal immigrant.
Illegal Immigration: The cons
Taking aside Human rights and helpfulness, their aren’t many economic benefits to illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a burden on education, job, healthcare, and the tax budget. Adding on, regardless of the assumption that illegal immigrants commit crimes or not, the fact that they simply entered adds to the total population of the United States. Illegal immigrants often need to be nationalized since sending them back to their country is highly inhumane. Illegal immigrants often migrate with pre-existing ailments that they cannot afford to treat, this puts a strain on the national Healthcare system. Illegal immigration hurts the wages of citizens as well. Imagine if you were a poor worker living in California making $8. That is a pretty reasonable wage to an average American, however, if an illegal immigrant from Mexico comes in and is willing to work for $2, either you would have to lower the amount of money that you work for or risk losing your job to someone else. Pretty unfair right?
Legal immigration: The Pros
Legal immigrants are highly beneficial to the economy and the job market. A vast majority of legal immigrants tend to be educated individuals who are some of the brightest in their own country. Their addition often results in more jobs being created for the local population and many times, results in many new businesses popping up in the country as well. Over 1 in 3 businesses in the United States of America are owned by immigrants and over a 3rd of doctors in Europe ARE Immigrants.
Legal immigration helps in building up a more dynamic and diverse economy since these people came in legally, it is proven that the country can handle the immigrant, and allow him/ her to contribute their skills in the forms of owning businesses and doing important jobs that benefit the country as a whole. Another important advantage of legal immigration is the fact that if you did enter the country legally, you cannot be thrown out and you can enjoy the lifestyle that citizens and other legal residents in the country enjoy
Legal immigration: The Cons
Legal immigration has its disadvantages too. The first disadvantage that arises is the fact that the system for taking in legal immigrants is trick and confusing in many countries. The primary reason for which legal immigrants enter a country is to gain citizenship in the country, something made very hard by many countries worldwide. For example, legal immigrants in Spain have to live in the country for 10 years continuously before they can be granted citizenship.
Adding on, the process of getting a visa to be allowed to live in a country legally is also hard in most parts of the world. A prior job offer is required in most countries and a vast number of applicants simply get rejected. Adding on, many countries have immigration quotas, for example, Australia will only take in 165,000 immigrants who do not have a prior job offer. Over 500,000 such people apply to work and live in Australia each year. A legal immigrant is also subjected to increased paperwork and scrutiny while working in the country and can risk getting deported for carrying out any small crime like throwing a chair. Adding on, there is a huge risk of social disharmony in the country stemming from legal immigration if it so happens in large numbers at a time.
Socialists vs Capitalists
If you are a Socialist, in the sense that you support higher wages and better working conditions, then you would be more likely to oppose illegal immigration. The reason for this is the fact illegal immigrants are more willing to work for lower wages giving no choice to citizens of the country. This was the main reason why Cesar Chavez, the founder of the farm leaders association, was so opposed to illegal immigration. This is also why President Obama of the US while appearing to support illegal immigration to secure the Hispanic Voter Base, tightened immigration laws, deported thousands and increased immigration checks at airports (from where ¾ of America’s illegal immigrants come from)
On the contrary, if you are a capitalist, you are much more likely to support illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a huge boon to private corporations as the corporation gets to hire more people at a lower cost, increasing profits for the corporation. Adding on, hiring illegals prevents the corporations from being legally held accountable for abusing workers as illegal immigrants do not have access to the same legal systems as legal workers. Take Japan as an example; the country will soon be dealing with a shortage of 377,000 caregivers, illegal immigrants to Japan would be willing to work for lower pay in these jobs and can be exploited a lot more, making them desirable for corporations. This could potentially be why President Trump while encouraging a border wall between Mexico and the USA (which is highly redundant in stopping illegal immigration) employs thousands of them at his golf courses and has even made it easier for illegal immigrants to enter the USA.
Closing off, I would like to state that the effects of immigration (and your opinion of it) are going to be different depending on where you live and the kind of person that you are. Adding on, different types of immigrants affect people in different ways. The reason I made this article was not to support or oppose immigration but rather to simply showcase the overlooked parts of immigration; the economic effects and to explain to you why the actions of certain politicians on this topic are more valuable than their words.