Introduction
Having considered the course I cannot but say that there are some points missed in the course. There are a lot of social problems, but I would like to concentrate on the several topics, that are neglected in the course. These are migration, poverty, and providing education in countries of the third world. These problems are very urgent today as poverty and lack of education have the same roots, as people without proper education aren’t able to receive good jobs, and migration is caused by the wish of people to seek a better life with better living conditions.
Migration
Today there are 200 million migrants in the whole world. And each of them must be provided with proper respect and rights. UN General Minister Kofi Annan called migration “one of the most important challenges of the XX century”. Also, he said that some measures towards helping migrants must be taken. In the report “Migration in Contemporary World: Directives of Actions” written by the World’s Organization of Migrations, concepts of actions, concerning the problem of migration, are included. The main concepts say:
- People should have the right of migration upon their will, and not upon the forced necessity. Migration should be held safely and appropriately, respecting people’s rights and professional abilities.
- The role of migrants in contributing to economic growth, development of the society, and reduction of the level of poverty must be officially accepted. Migration must become an inherent part of the strategy of world development.
- Those states, which independently decide whom to allow entering their territory should actively cooperate in cases of resistance to illegal migration, concerning all the rights of migrants, refugees, and also everyone who decided to come back to their native country.
- The state should contribute to the effective inclusion of officially accepted migrants into the life of society. That should be conducted according to the principles of social equality and diversity. Migrants must know their rights and claim for observation of their legal guarantees.
- The structure of the rights of migrants should find its more effective realization to enhance the protection and labor standards of migrants.
- The international community should aspire to the improvement of politics on the national level, to more efficient dialogues and cooperation between governments and international organizations.
It is mentioned in the report that migration essentially contributes to the development of the world economy, though no one accepted it. Moreover, considering the low birth rate in many industrial countries, a continuation of their economic development will be based on international migration. Every year migrants send to their countries nearly 150 billion US dollars. This quantity is three times more than the financial aid given by the developed countries.
Concerning the economic consequences of migration, the growth of tension between governments and the business sphere is underlined. Because of severe migration limits, some companies tend to reduce those limits in the part of work of migrants. Sometimes, companies even lead themselves to re-placing manufactures abroad, where suitable working personnel can be easily found.
The problems concerning illegal or “irregular” migration are also highlighted in the report. This phenomenon, especially when conducted with smuggling, threatens both migrants themselves, and the countries they arrive in. states have the right to protect their borders, but their ability to control the stream of people is greatly limited. In many cases, it causes threats to the rights of migrants. In many countries, where migrants arrive, local society treats them doubtingly.
Often these doubts are supported by mo real facts, but they are artificially spread by some politicians and mass media. The main reason for worries is safety. It is mentioned in the report that recent cases of violation committed by migrants led to making society create parallels between migration and terrorism. The growth of migration is treated as the real threat to national safety.
Poverty
Another problem is poverty. Poverty can be of different cases, it may refer to the lack of money, some facilities, or education. Today more than 1.7 billion of the earth’s population lives in poverty. Poverty is caused by many reasons. The first and the most obvious is financial problems. A lot of people are dependent on the economy of the country, and if the development plan fails, people find themselves poor and with their bottom dollar in their pockets. Today, the main reason for poverty is a financial crisis that led to the corruption of many economies of different countries, thus sentencing people to be in lack of money. Other reasons for poverty are “corruption, political instability, and insufficient social institutes”.
Poverty is divided into absolute poverty (which is divided into extreme (when people live on less than $1.25 per day) and moderate (when people live on less than $2 per day) poverty) and relative poverty (it’s the index of poverty in the world). To help starving and poor people, some aids are provided. International organizations try to provide them with food, clothes; try to give them proper education and to find some work for them.
Education
Another problem that is connected with poverty is education. There are more than 1 billion non-educated people in the world. The majority of them live in Africa and developing countries, as well as the majority of them, are women, mostly of the Muslim religion. This problem is also rather urgent as in the contemporary world education plays a great role in receiving proper work and earn a good living. Though many people still cannot read and write.
Besides, education is not very popular in agrarian countries, as people who used to work with their hands don’t understand the importance of education. “The degree of education is much higher than in industrialized countries”. Also, another point why people in developing countries don’t receive an education is that parents because of poor conditions of living prefer their children to make at least some money than to study for years.
Conclusion
All of the highlighted problems are of great importance today and all of the three are connected. Migration leads to poverty, as many people are illegal migrants and they cannot receive good working positions, which leads to poverty, which leads to forcing people to receive no education to make money, and lack of money makes people look for a better life somewhere abroad – the locked circle. And the aim is to overcome it.
Reference List
Krugman, P, & Wells, R, Macroeconomics 2, Worth Publishers, New York City, 2009.
Schofield K, The Purposes of Education, Queensland State Education, Queensland, 2010.
Zenit.org. “Migrants Are People, Not Money-Makers”, Innovative Media, 2009.
Zenit.org. “On World Day of Migrants”, Innovative Media, 2009.