Transportation improvements that have promoted globalization, such as motor vehicles and airplanes, have diminished the importance of environmental features as intervening obstacles.
Key Issue 4: Why Do Migrants Face Challenges?
Government Immigration Policies Most countries, including the United States, have instituted selective immigration policies that admit some types of immigrants while barring others. Visas are typically granted for specific employment placement and family reunification. The United Nations categorizes countries according to four types of immigration policies: (1) maintain the current level of immigration, (2) increase the level, (3) reduce the level, (4) no policy. Emigration policies are identified by the same four classes.
Unauthorized Immigration Migrants who enter the United States without proper documents are called unauthorized immigrants. More than half the unauthorized immigrants in the United States emigrated from
Mexico. Academic observers favor the term “unauthorized immigrants” when referring to this group of immigrants, while “undocumented immigrant” is preferred by some of the groups that advocate for more rights for these individuals. An estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States. Approximately 8 million unauthorized immigrants, comprise 5 percent of the total U.S. civilian work force. They are most likely to be employed in construction and hospitality industries. The states with the largest number of unauthorized immigrants are California and Texas.
U.S. Quota Acts A quota is a law establishing a maximum limit on the number of people who can immigrate into a country. The United States has long used quota laws to limit the source regions and numbers of new migrants. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 restricted the number of immigrants to 3 percent of people from that countries already living in the U.S. The 1924 act also established quotas preferential to Europeans. In 1965 quotas for hemispheres replaced the quotas for individual countries. In 1978 and 1990 adjustments were made to a global quota system.
Skill & Family-based Migration The number of applicants for admission exceeds the quotas set. The current system has three preferences: family reunification, skilled workers, and a diversity lottery for countries that have historically sent few immigrants to the United States. The quota system does not apply to refugees who may be admitted when their refugee status is verified.
The preference for talented and skilled workers in wanted professions in the long run may affect the countries these professionals are emigrating from. A brain drain occurs when there is large-scale emigration by talented people which may result in a shortage of that profession in the home country. Presently, many professionals from Asian countries are immigrating to the United States, contributing to brain drain in their native countries. Family members of these professionals can immigrate under family-reunification provisions. Skilled professionals may use family-based migration which permits the migration of people to a specific location because relatives have previously migrated there.
U.S.-Mexico Border Issues The United States border with Mexico is 3,145 kilometers long and in some cases running through sparsely inhabited regions. The United States has constructed a barrier along the border that covers approximately one-fourth of the border’s length. Sometimes locating the border is difficult in sparsely inhabited remote areas.
Border Disputes American citizens are divided concerning whether unauthorized migration helps or hurts the country. This ambivalence extends to certain elements of immigration law. Four major issues divide American opinion regarding illegal border crossings.
Border Security While many Americans would like to see more effective border patrols and physical barriers, such as fences, constructed to prevent unauthorized border crossings, they cannot agree on the funding of these expenditures.
Workplace Most Americans acknowledge that unauthorized immigrants take jobs that no American citizen desires to take, so they support some type of temporary work visa to allow migrants to work in the United States.
Civil Rights Americans also favor letting law enforcement officials stop and verify the legal status of anyone they suspect of being an unauthorized immigrant; however, citizens also fear civil rights may be violated in doing so.
Local Initiatives According to polls, most Americans believe that enforcement of unauthorized immigrants is a federal, and not a local government responsibility. Others, especially residents along the border, favor stronger enforcement.
Diverse Border Crossings There are 67 official border crossing between the United States and Mexico. Some crossings are in urban areas such as San Diego and have a high volume of motor traffic. Other crossings are only for pedestrians, and some are located in remote and sparsely populated areas.
Europe Immigration Issues The number of immigrants in Europe has been increasing in recent years.
Guest Workers Germany and other wealthy European countries instituted guest worker programs, in which immigrants from poorer countries were permitted to immigrate temporarily to obtain employment. These guest worker programs (operated primarily during the 1960s and 1970s) were anticipated to be examples of circular migration, which is the temporary movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries to seek employment. Guest workers were anticipated to return to their home countries once their work was done. Most of these migrants have remained permanently in Europe, becoming citizens of the host country.
Attitudes Toward Immigrants Many political parties in countries across Europe have adopted hostile positions toward immigrants, labeling them as the source of increased crime, unemployment, and high welfare costs. They also claim that these immigrants are eroding the long-standing cultural traditions of the host country. Demographic change has played a major role in the source of this hostility, with most European countries currently in the fourth stage of the demographic transition, with very low or negative NIR. In many countries immigrants are now the sole source of population growth.
3.4 Key Terms
Brain drain When the majority of educated or skilled workers leave an area to pursue better opportunities elsewhere
Circular migration The temporary movement of a migrant worker between home and host countries to seek employment.
Family-based migration Migration of people to a specific location because relatives previously migrated there.
Guest worker A legal immigrant who is allowed into the country to work, usually for a relatively short time period
Pull factor A motivator that draws people into an area
Unauthorized immigrant Person moving into a country without authorization