Introduction
International migration has become a choice for more individuals around the globe seeking to improve their life chances by moving between nations. Unlike early forms of migration, current international mobility is characterized by less selective conditions. Gender, ethnic, regional, and cultural disparities do not limit or determine the conscious calculus of choice to move. Most importantly, the majority of the nations have streamlined visa applications to enable the movement of skilled professionals to support international labor markets. Realizing the economic benefits of immigration in enriching the nations with labor, creativity, and trade, governments have responded by adjusting their policies to accommodate and control immigration. Despite the benefits brought by immigration, many governments have considered policies that will limit adverse effects on social cohesion. For example, former president Donald Trump is an outspoken leader advocating against leniency for the diversity enhanced by migration. Nevertheless, despite the negative impacts of immigration such as the erosion of local cultures and threatening social structures in the host country, it enhances diversity in that it connects the world, expands culture, and improves economies.
Background
In the years after the World Wars, migration was high but only for a minority of nations, which faced the adverse effects of the War. Twenty-first-century migration involves the highest number of countries where people leave their homeland. According to the International Organization for Migration (2010), there were approximately a hundred million migrants at the close of the century after only two decades. The rate of increase in people outside their countries of birth has increased immensely in the twenty-first century (Harmon, 2018). The International Labor Organization (ILO) records a rapidly increasing number of foreign workers as more countries prefer importing skilled labor. The ILO estimates an increase in migrant workers, including 30 million from Africa, 20 million from Asia, and 15 million from Central and South America (Villazor & Johnson, 2019). These figures largely underestimate actual movement patterns since the data collection systems are dependent on limited sources. Illegal and undocumented transfers of people across countries and continents have increased over the years. Moreover, since most of this movement is not linear but circular, it is difficult to record the number of persons who have lived in foreign nations. Therefore, the numbers are not only more extensive than those provided by the ILO but also increasing at an uncountable rate.
After the mass movement of the population in the mid-twentieth century, migration in Western countries stabilized and was limited to a few numbers. However, towards the close of the past century, persons born in other countries have continued to account for more significant numbers of Western populations. For example, in the United Kingdom, the numbers rose sharply from 7% in 1995 to over 17% in 2017 (Boucher, 2020). The rise in non-white ethnicity in the population has brought policy concerns in various developed nations. However, the levels of concern have not been significant enough to trigger major policy changes.
Twenty-first-century economic patterns are characterized by intense business competition across the globe. For this reason, multinationals are seeking cheaper labor and favorable conditions, such as trading policies and political stability, to thrive. Therefore, diversity in populations allows organizations to benefit from all possible labor markets. The inclusion of diverse cultures and people of different backgrounds gives organizations the excellent reputation they need to earn loyalty from consumers. In a study conducted on redistribution in immigration-induced diversity in London, Alesina and Stantcheva (2020) found that ethnic diversity positively improved social cohesion among neighborhood residents despite economic deprivation. The study also revealed that ethnic segregation translated to low levels of social cohesion in the neighborhoods regardless of the income inequality levels. Most importantly, the results depended on the age of respondents, with diversity supported most by the young generation.
Immigration versus Diversity
People strive to move to foreign countries in pursuit of a career or social goals. However, crossing borders involve strict and long procedures depending on the target country, which disadvantages people from certain origins. Countries have the freedom to develop an immigration policy that fits their prestige and goals; however, consideration for cohesion and harmony is crucial for the growth and development of the globe, especially in the fast-changing nature of the 21st century.
The positive effects of diversity can only be linked to immigration if immigration policies of different countries are tuned to promote the same. While the world has made undeniable strides toward diversity, immigration policies are still a hindrance to interconnecting the world. For example, the racial and ethnic diversity rate is at a commendable high in the United States; however, the diversity is not uniform across the country. The disparity in the distribution of foreigners is also evident in age groups; the percentage of young people versus old of different origins has an undeniable gap (Villazor & Johnson, 2019). Understandably, countries hope to benefit from immigrants in terms of labor and skills, which explain the generational disparity; however, if immigration policies focus on diversity, such interests will be taken care of without being a disadvantage to a specific group.
Nevertheless, the current state of immigration in the world considerably reflects diversity. Unlike decades ago, almost every country has foreigners represented in different economic and social fields. Countries are now allowing foreigners to take dual citizenships and serve in national governments, both appointed and elected. While there is still huge room for improvement, the immigration impact on diversity is huge, and the benefits should not be downplayed.
Immigration Expands Culture
When people from different continents regularly interact as colleagues, neighbors, or classmates, there is automatically the introduction of new customs and ideas. The fact that immigrants bring change in society should not raise concerns about natives. The influence is mutual; most immigrants move to a country seeking better opportunities, and therefore, they are often eager to learn and adapt to the new societal structures. However, it is natural for human beings to pick up traits from one another. Some natives consciously resist any manner of change for fear of losing their culture, but this is inevitable in the 21st century, where the world is a global village (Villazor & Johnson, 2019). One has to adapt to new ways of trade, communication, and family structures; all these are significantly influenced by culture.
It is important to understand the positive effect of expanding culture, not replacing or erasing it. For example, in cuisines, some cultures only boil a certain type of food, some opt to fry, and to some, the food is not edible. When the three groups of people regularly interact in a community, each person adds on their food; it either expands their diet choices or adds flavor to the dining table. Expanding culture can also be in the form of dressing; an immigrant may introduce a variation on dressing in church or office that people from different origins find interesting and include in their wardrobe designs.
Immigration Improves Economies
Immigrants have a positive effect on national and local economies because they come with different ideologies and competitive elements. Typically, immigrants seek a better economy than their home country; they hope to improve their lives either through professional skills or entrepreneurship. Companies often make attractive offers for professional immigrants in different fields, which influences benefits for native employees; this, in turn, changes the overall wage and salaries for an industry.
Immigrants boost not only wages but also expand economies. Natives have a chance to experience goods from foreign countries because immigrants keep in touch with their communities back home, who occasionally exchange items through cargo services. Considering most immigrants are on a mission to boost their quality of life, they easily notice a gap or take advantage of their new ideas and do business out of it. It could be establishing a restaurant that specializes in foreign foods or importing unique goods (Harmon, 2018). Besides entrepreneurship, immigrants consume goods and services from natives; this means an increase in demand for existing enterprises. The foundation of economic growth is in high demand for goods and services, which in this case, is an immigrant effect.
Whenever a business is established, there is always a ripple economic effect both on the local and national economy. New cuisines, new goods, and new styles of clothing, among other effects of immigrants, create new wants and needs in an economy, which are business opportunities that extend to creating jobs. The government benefits by collecting revenue, the immediate community benefits by the availability of certain goods and services, and several households benefit from wages from the businesses. The impact of immigrants on an economy goes beyond national concern because their families back in their home country benefit from these business activities to create a circular global effect.
Immigration Connects the World
The positive impact of exposure to different languages and lifestyles across the world can be easily undermined. One of the outstanding milestones in the 21st century is how the world is interconnected. While children learn Geography and History early in school, most people do not experience the practicality of it until they meet colleagues, neighbors, or churchmates from foreign countries. Immigrants enhance the interconnection of culture and friendships, which not only opens up people’s minds to new possibilities but helps in neutralizing unhealthy barriers among human beings.
Racial discrimination, for instance, has significantly dropped in the 21st century because most countries have opened up their borders to immigrants (Boucher, 2020). School children’s perspective change when they interact with peers from foreign backgrounds, with different skin colors and accents. Tourism is another sector that has significantly benefited from the immigrant effect of connecting the world. People are free to experience different seasons, enjoy breathtaking views that exist in specific parts of the globe, and see endangered species of wild animals for the first time in their lives; all these are because of the barriers that immigration is neutralizing. Some professions are more marketable or in demand in other parts of the world compared to others; people can only access such opportunities because countries have opened doors to immigrants. There is mutual benefit for different countries and the world at large.
Immigration is at the center of world transformations in the 21st century. Entrepreneurs can sell goods and services across continents because they understand the culture and nature of people in different parts of the world. Today, employers opt to engage professionals on remote jobs to save on office space, among other economic elements and dynamics of a business, because they trust foreigners miles away. The efficiency of communication technology would not be as beneficial today without the positive effect of immigrants.
Opposing Immigration-Induced Diversity
While the majority of nations celebrate inclusivity and diversity brought by immigration, evidence of the negativity on diversity threatens future social structures. For example, immigration reports in the United Kingdom reveal deprivation of shared social norms and civic participation. According to Boucher (2020), the positive effects of cooperation among ethnicities surpass and offset the underlying negative effects. For example, highly dense regions characterized by high rates of diversity and co-ethnic density help to build cohesive societies.
While there are fears of the risk of erosion of local cultures in host countries, there is little evidence to prove it. For example, Alesina and Stantcheva (2020) found that various predictors of social cohesion highlight the lack of evidence for an eroding impact in Western civilization due to increased diversity. The study further revealed that there is a close relationship between economic deprivation and diversity. On the other hand, there was an inverse proportionality between rising diversity and neighborhood trust.
Gaps and Limitations
While most researchers are interested in the mobility of the modern global population, there is little focus on the relationship between immigration and diversity. Most studies have examined challenges and factors influencing social cohesion and the threat of cultural erosion in Western civilization. Other challenges in research include the multi-ethnic and circular movement of populations that affect the accuracy of the data. Essentially, diversity is not dependent on immigration, and immigration does not guarantee racial diversity. Therefore, available research cannot provide solid evidence to support the relationship between immigration and diversity.
Another challenge facing research on immigration and diversity is the lack of agreeable terms and definitions used as indicators to measure diversity. As a result, most studies rely on primary data from interviewing local populations to collect data for the studies. Therefore, it is marred with bias and other inaccuracies arising from the fear of contradiction. Nevertheless, there is a growing concern for the impact of multiculturalism both in academia and among legislators that will help secure accurate and reliable data.
Conclusion
Admittedly, immigration enhances diversity since it makes people connected around the world, expands culture, and leads to an improvement of economies due to different ideologies. Governments have shown utmost commitment to adjusting and streamlining their immigration policies. These adjustments help enhance diversity, which in turn flourishes the hosts’ business environment through trade and development based on skill. Nevertheless, some leaders are concerned over the increased rates of immigration, especially from poor countries to developed counties. Although their services are desperately needed, the high rates are alarming, as they threaten to erode the host countries’ cultures. Various researchers have found no strong evidence to support this concern. Nevertheless, legislative changes have aimed at controlling and curbing any mishaps related to increased diversity in local cities. Immigration policies reflect the characteristics of immigrants and the effects of the selection on the local society. Most importantly, these policies are supported by the young generation comprising millennials who are accommodative of all levels of diversity.
References
Alesina, A., & Stantcheva, S. (2020). Diversity, immigration, and redistribution. In W. Johnson & T. Lippert (Eds.), AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 110, pp. 329-34).
Boucher, A. K. (2020). How skill definition affects the diversity of skilled immigration policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(12), 2533-2550.
Harmon, N. A. (2018). Immigration, ethnic diversity, and political outcomes: Evidence from Denmark. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 120(4), 1043-1074.
International Organization For Migration. (2010). World migration Report 2010. The future of migration: Building capacities for change. Web.
Villazor, R. C., & Johnson, K. R. (2019). The Trump administration and the War on immigration diversity. Wake Forest Law Review, 54, 575. Web.