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Immigration to the US is Likely to Increase in Coming Years, says Immigration Expert
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| Susan Martin |
WASHINGTON, February 8, 2007 � The two major trends that will define immigration for the next several decades are a movement from north to south – from developing to developed countries – and an increasing number of female migrants, said Susan F. Martin, director of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration, in a talk with IRP fellows and SAIS students.
Economic disparity is the main factor fueling migration. With the gap between rich and poor countries widening, Martin expects migration to increase. Conflict and political instability also drive people to leave their homeland in search of greater security. For women, economic and security-related issues are also pushing more women to migrate, but there are also human rights and gender issues in play. “South African nurses migrate for a working environment in which they’re respected,” Martin said.
There are about 200 million international “migrants” (someone living outside his or her country of origin for over a year) in the world today. The United States is home to more of them – about 36 million – than any other country. Together they form an economic lifeline that keeps many poor countries afloat. Migrants often send more money back to their home countries than those countries receive in official development aid. Martin said remittances from migrants total about $200 billion a year and in some countries represents 20 percent of the GDP.
Surprisingly, it is not the poorest people in a country who seek to migrate. In the case of Mexican migration to the U.S., for instance, Martin said a recent study found the average educational level of migrants to be higher than those who stayed behind in Mexico.
Martin said countries deal with illegal migration in two main ways. The first is the “island enforcement” strategy, practiced by the U.S. and Australia, in which the focus is on border security and points of entry, in an attempt to keep people out. The second is the “interior enforcement” strategy, used primarily in Europe, in which officials stop people on the streets to ask for their documents and target immigrants by enforcing tough work laws.
In the U.S., migrants can easily obtain fake documents so those in the country illegally can get jobs. While this system holds benefits for employers, who get cheap labor, and for the immigrants, who get to work, there are downfalls, Martin said. Some workers are exploited and forced to work in harsh conditions for little money. Also, the illegal system undermines that legal immigration system, already taxed by long waiting lists and processing delays.
Martin believes controlling illegal immigration to the United States is possible, but requires a broad and varied series of measures. She advocates a carrot-and-stick approach. She believes the 12 million people in the U.S. illegally should be able to seek a path to legal residency, technology should be used to make border enforcement more efficient and less disruptive to commerce, and new work site laws and labor standards should be enforced to stem the flow of illegal labor.
Copyright © 2007 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.