Managing Migration in a Developed Country
- Monitoring and managing the rate of population change in a country is a key issue for any government
- Voluntary migrants bring positive and negative benefits to a country:
- Positive - boost falling populations and declining economic growth
- Negative - illegal immigration and fear of migrants taking jobs and housing in the host country
- Many governments try to manage migration to meet the country's changing demographic and economic needs
- Governments can either encourage or discourage natural growth and immigration depending on circumstances
- When economies are struggling, immigration rules become harder; whilst an economic upturn will see rules being softened
- Successful management of migration needs to:
- Maximise the positive benefits of migration to both the host country and country of origin
- Prevent illegal migration through border controls
- Promote legal migration channels
UK's Management of Immigration Since 1950
- After the end of the Second World War there was a serious shortage of labour to help rebuild the country
- The UK encouraged immigration from Commonwealth countries particularly British colonies such as the Caribbean, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
- By 1971 over a million people had migrated from Commonwealth countries and the UK implemented controls to reduce the number of future migrant arrivals
- By the 1990s the UK found itself short of labour once again
- With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, there was an influx of people looking for work and a decent wage
- When the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, many people from these countries made their way to the UK
- Initially, very few of these migrants intended to remain in the UK, they intended to return home after they had made enough money
- The majority of these migrants were young (aged between 18-34 years) and half came from Poland
- During the 2009 recession, job opportunities began drying up and many Eastern Europeans returned home
- Free movement within the EU meant that the UK had no control over their borders
- Many UK nationals began blaming these economic migrants for taking their jobs and abusing the UK's benefits system
- With net immigration running at 300,000 a year, the control of immigration was one of the key issues in the UK's Referendum to leave the EU in 2016
- However, critics ignore the fact that:
- Migrants contribute to the economy through paid taxes and do the jobs others don't want
- Many migrants are employed in low-paid, menial jobs such as factories, hotels, farming and care homes
- Migrants may have a strong work ethic which benefits employers, although some employers exploit this
- Less than 5% of economic migrants receive any form of state benefit
- Today the UK operates a points-based system
- People are awarded points depending on their skills, previous income and age
- This system gives some people visas to allow them entry into the UK for work or study