Migration is definitely not a new phenomenon. It has been one of the important elements of human history. People always migrated from one continent to another, from country to country and even inside countries, all of which played an important role in shaping today’s world. However, nowadays migration matters more than ever. The increasing importance of migration comes from its rising scale. According to the United Nations, ‘in 2013 the number of international migrants worldwide reached 232 million, from 175 million in 2000’ (Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 2013). The reasons for such an increase in international migration are complex. There are different factors that make people leave their own countries:
…show more content…
Looking at a simple supply and demand model it is evident that an increase in labour supply causes decrease in wages for native labour force, because more people are ready to work at a certain wage. Since, there is no such thing as immigrant job, immigrants and natives compete with each other to take the job and in most cases natives lose, because employers prefer to hire the low-wage immigrant workers. On the other hand, opponents of immigration argue that immigrants may produce conflicts between different ethnic groups. Will Somerville and Madeleine Sumption mention in their book that in September 2008, in Italy there was a significant growth in unemployment and government statistics agency said that it was caused by high rate of immigration (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). Weeks later, similarly, unemployed people in Spain suggested their government to introduce a new program according to which the government would pay immigrants for going back to home. Somerville and Madeleine also cite that according to the study of German Marshall, Fund British people think that immigrants take jobs away from the native workers. Moreover, in 2007 a similar survey showed that almost 40% of British citizens blame immigrants for job loss and wage reduction of unskilled Britons (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). Correspondingly to Somerville and Sumption, Christian Dustmann, Albrecht Glitz and Tommaso Frattini claim that approximately …show more content…
Nevertheless, immigration can be beneficial for the host country’s welfare. In the contrast to immigration critics, economists and policy makers argue that immigration does not decrease the wages of native workers or increase the unemployment rate in the host country. According to them, negative impacts of immigration on wages and employment of the host country is very little, and, moreover, immigration has positive effects on long-term economic growth (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). First of all, immigration can be beneficial for the country having the shortage in the labour market. This is the case when the economy depends on the migrant workers. Secondly, in addition to increasing labour supply, immigration expands the demand for the labour. Specifically, immigrants increase consumer demand for the goods and services. Consequently, due to availability of more workers firms decide to invest more. They build new establishments and increase their capacity of production. Increase in investment results in growth of wages and employment. This means that immigration can increase the competition for the jobs but it helps to create new jobs as well. Thirdly, migration is beneficial for the host country, because immigrants mostly take low-wage and long hour jobs, and this allow native businesses to save their money. Furthermore, immigrants fill up the jobs that most natives do not will to take, and
Looking at a simple supply and demand model it is evident that an increase in labour supply causes decrease in wages for native labour force, because more people are ready to work at a certain wage. Since, there is no such thing as immigrant job, immigrants and natives compete with each other to take the job and in most cases natives lose, because employers prefer to hire the low-wage immigrant workers. On the other hand, opponents of immigration argue that immigrants may produce conflicts between different ethnic groups. Will Somerville and Madeleine Sumption mention in their book that in September 2008, in Italy there was a significant growth in unemployment and government statistics agency said that it was caused by high rate of immigration (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). Weeks later, similarly, unemployed people in Spain suggested their government to introduce a new program according to which the government would pay immigrants for going back to home. Somerville and Madeleine also cite that according to the study of German Marshall, Fund British people think that immigrants take jobs away from the native workers. Moreover, in 2007 a similar survey showed that almost 40% of British citizens blame immigrants for job loss and wage reduction of unskilled Britons (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). Correspondingly to Somerville and Sumption, Christian Dustmann, Albrecht Glitz and Tommaso Frattini claim that approximately …show more content…
Nevertheless, immigration can be beneficial for the host country’s welfare. In the contrast to immigration critics, economists and policy makers argue that immigration does not decrease the wages of native workers or increase the unemployment rate in the host country. According to them, negative impacts of immigration on wages and employment of the host country is very little, and, moreover, immigration has positive effects on long-term economic growth (Somerville & Sumption, 2009). First of all, immigration can be beneficial for the country having the shortage in the labour market. This is the case when the economy depends on the migrant workers. Secondly, in addition to increasing labour supply, immigration expands the demand for the labour. Specifically, immigrants increase consumer demand for the goods and services. Consequently, due to availability of more workers firms decide to invest more. They build new establishments and increase their capacity of production. Increase in investment results in growth of wages and employment. This means that immigration can increase the competition for the jobs but it helps to create new jobs as well. Thirdly, migration is beneficial for the host country, because immigrants mostly take low-wage and long hour jobs, and this allow native businesses to save their money. Furthermore, immigrants fill up the jobs that most natives do not will to take, and