The number of migrants in the world has more than doubled since 1975 Essay

The number of migrants in the world has more than doubled since 1975. Discuss, with specific reference to UK - Essay Example Moreover, according to reports from the Office of National Statistics the net migration into UK was roughly 189,000 between mid-2005 and mid-2006. Also, the overall migration in to the UK since 1994 has been estimated to be in excess of 2 million people. These staggering figures all point to the fact that the negative net migration is contributing hugely to the population expansion in UK. There are numerous reasons for this. One view claims that this is a direct consequence of the respective immigration policies in the UK and outside it and is hence a consequence of a choice made by the policymakers. However, migration demographics gathered from other countries seems to contradict this theory and suggest that in addition to the UK immigration policy, this is more due to the economic forces working silently behind the scenes.1 Hatton summarizes in his paper that relative income, immigration policy and inequality all have a role to play in the inducement to migrate to or from UK. However, he wraps up his paper by saying that patterns of unemployment and relative income have a comparatively smaller impact on the migration of UK when compared to UK inequality and relative policy disparities between UK and rest of the Europe in specific and rest of the world in general. This has huge implications on the UK economy and on UK as a whole. ... the high net migration but also because of increasing life expectance and fertility), a city the size of Birmingham must be constructed every two and a half years in order to meet the growing needs!' Apart from the obvious problems of over-population and lack of space in the society, a huge negative immigration can have many other consequences to the common Britisher. Sir Andrew Green, the Chairman of Migration Watch UK said on the November 4th, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times; 'Failure to act now will mean that our society will be changed beyond recognition - and especially our cities. London is one-third immigrant and half of all babies born there have a foreign parent. Other large cities will follow. According to one academic study, the ethnic community in Britain will grow from 9% to 29% by mid-century. There is every reason for concern. The Commission for Racial Equality's final report spoke frankly about growing segregation and of our society "fracturing", with bonds of solidarity across different groups weakening, and tensions between people increasing. These are serious warnings. The Commission Racial Equality was in denial about the role of mass immigration in all this but the rest of us can see it clearly.' (Sir Green A., 2007, Sunday Times). Putting this fact aside too, other problems such as the cheaper immigrant labor being absorbed into the workforce while one million (according to independent studies) laborers who would like to work but cannot do so because certain laborers are charging below the market rate for their services emerge. However, it is apparent that there must be certain advantages of having a high number of immigrants into the economy. For example, the injection of foreigners into the economy means that they can do those things which