IN THE SEARCH OF WORTHY LIFE

Debate over immigration and immigration policy is not new and is a kind of a headache to each nation and State. As immigration rises and indignation grows, more laws should be implemented to release the tension and to regulate this overflow. While talking about immigration we are to distinguish between legal and illegal processes. Illegal immigration has some pros and cons. Let’s consider both.

PROS:

1. Illegals fill vacancies in non-prestigious industries where pampered nationals (as L2L team puts it) refuse to work. It is significant to mark here that some business groups (such as: construction firms, agriculture, hotels, restaurants and clubs and many others) have a lot interest in illegal immigration, because the cheap labour helps to cut costs and a result causes better competition.

2. Some immigrants are skillful workers.

3. The immigrant population contributes to culture mix. It provides diversity and helps to understand other cultures.

4. The immigrants compensate for falling birth rates.

CONS:

1. The workers who are willing to work for lower wages set up a competition with the local citizens, because the latter won’t be suggested a higher wage for the job in the situation.

2. But they don’t pay taxes, though using social benefits. No doubt, it arouses a great deal of annoyance on the part of the nationals. They send money to their families outside the country’s economy they live and work in for the moment. It results in a monetary problem.

3. Sometimes multi-cultural society may have negative consequences. For example, some foreign communities are at war with each other and even hostile towards the local citizens. It criminalizes the situation in the country. More than that, in the search of higher wages the immigrants are involved in drug traffic, arms traffic, money trade and even human traffic, as well as in making and selling false documents.

4. It’s an open secret (and L2L team has already mentioned that) that in many cases immigrants are escaping the famine, war and pestilence that plague their homelands. Surely, our duty as humans is to help them (granting asylum?), we are to respect their human rights, so should they – making this process legal! Having escaped from an unfavourable place, the immigrants are transferred automatically into a risk group, because when they come to a new country, they do not get tested for diseases that might infect the population. This can be very dangerous!

5. Stateless people cost a lot of money. The State has to pay their education, health care, lodging, nourishment and other social services.

So, as you can see, the problem of immigration is rather complex, and the cons column turned out to be filled to a greater extent. More than often immigrants face exploitation, persecution and misery. We are to be humane towards them, and we are to find humane solutions. Repatriation is not a way out to my mind, though sometimes it should be applied concerning immigrant gangs. In this respect I would also like to mention Italy’s migration policy, which I find rather reasonable. An entry visa will granted only if an immigrant has a labour contract, not less than for 2 years at that. After the expiry of the contract and if a foreigner can’t find a new job, he/she has to return back to his/her homeland. A permanent domicile will be granted only after 6 years of permanent work. The law also implements some radical measures concerning those people, who help illegal immigrants to get into the country – up to 12 years of imprisonment.
My personal opinion is not in favour of illegal immigrants. I believe that if they decide to leave their own country due to some reasons, they are to respect the adopting country and its laws, which is not sometimes the case. I’m inclined to think that mere escaping won’t solve the problem. The immigrants should do everything possible to improve their own country’s economy. And I don’t like the idea of their taking up social services that legal residents use, if they don’t pay taxes, because most of the ellegals’ net income goes outside the country. Why should it support them then??? In spite of this, I don’t think that immigrants are destroying national identity. A healthy nation is difficult to dilute! One more argument – they say that mixed marriages give birth to strong (in terms of health) and clever children.
The conclusion is quite evident – mixing of different races doesn’t always result in destroying one’s nation, in some cases it is enrichment. We are just to have a systematic control over foreign citizens’ transit and stay and to improve our legislative base. Whether we are on this or that side of the fence, we’ll meet consensus in the issue that the immigrants’ flow should be restricted anyhow.