Wind In My Head: What are the advantages and disadvantages of immigration?
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
What are the advantages and disadvantages of immigration?
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Immigration is not a new concept. It is one that has seen a great revival in the last twenty years or so. This is because of the globalised world that we live in and air travel has made it even easier for us to migrate from one country to another. Needless to say, when one extols the wonders of immigration, one must also be clearly aware of how it could create more problems than it fixes.
One great thing about immigration would be the fact that many immigrants from poorer nations move to seek a better life. Their lives would be greatly improved because they would finally be living in a greater, more cosmopolitan city. Furthermore,urbanites living in such areas are highly educated and snobbish, leaving a plethora of jobs available for these immigrants to take up. These immigrants become a great help to their adopted country because the jobs they do are necessary and keep the country going. An excellent illustration of this point would be that the adopted country would become extremely dirty and smelly if not for the immigrants who because garbage disposal executives. Furthermore, nations like Singapore would not have smooth roads if not for our immigrants who willingly take on the task of filling up the potholes with bitumen under the baking sun. These potholes are dangerous to the numerous cars on the road and Singapore cannot have roads with such conditions. Enter the immigrant. Singapore citizens being more educated know the folly of working out in the sun without sun block, thus they are reluctant to take on such jobs. Therefore, our nation would be at a loss if not for the heroic immigrants that do these necessary jobs in Singapore.
Yet another reason why immigration is good for any nation is the simple reason that in order to emigrate to another country, one requires a mode of transportation. Transportation costs a great amount because oil these days cost USD$70 per barrel. As a result of this, flight, train, ship tickets cost an arm and a leg. However, to emigrate, this is necessary. The outcome that follows this would then be that with every emigrant that leaves the country, the travel industry profits from the sale. These airfare and train fare profits contribute to the wealth of the nation. With so many emigrants leaving everyday, the tourism industry does benefit from the exodus of people who go off in searh of greener pastures. Airlines do not just have special student fares, they have a fare category for those who want to emigrate. These are the "One Way Ticket" fares. Often, travel agents and airlines charge more for these tickets because they know that these are used by people who are migrating and therefore want to make that last sale as profitable to them as possible.
The only problem with this picture is that it is may not always been beneficial to accept every miscreant that wants to move into the country. These people are strangers in a strange land and the technology used to screen them is not full proof. The outcome of that could possibly be that we allow yet another Hitler to live on our shores without knowing. Hitler had been an immigrant in Germany, from Austria- a neighbouring country. If this occurred in the current day context, the effects would be even more disatrous than it was 70 years ago. This would especially be the case if there were Jewish immigrants as well, bringing about the possibility of another Holocaust! If we were looking at disadvantages, this would definitely be a great one.
All in all, we do need immigrants in our countries. They are all wonderful people, adding to the colours and smells of the country. They also save us from doing a great number of jobs that we would rather not do so we ought to be extremely grateful that they chose our country to emigrate to. Having said that, it is also necessary to pay close attention to who we let in. We do not want to allow immigrants in who might tip the delicate balance that we have in our society. It is the only way that we can milk the advantages of such a situation and having our immigrant cake and eating it at the same time!
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Scary, isn't it?
Technorati Tags: immigration
Ondine tossed this thought in at 15:21
2 thoughts...
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At 7:16 pm
char said... They are all wonderful people, adding to the colours and smells of the country.
It is the only way that we can milk the advantages of such a situation and having our immigrant cake and eating it at the same time!
yummy! chomp chomp.-
At 12:08 pm
Unknown said...
savage