Immigration is the hot and rising political issue in the western world. Many of the local population in the western world have feeling that settled immigrants have taken away local jobs.
Data on Migration:
- According to the population division at the department of economics and social welfare of the United Nations, the total number of immigrants as of mid-2019 is 272 million.
- In 1990, the total number of immigrants was 153 million. And the number of immigrants has risen constantly over the years.
- In 2017, the number of international migrants worldwide – people residing in a country other than their country of birth – reached 258 million (from 244 million in 2015).
- Female migrants constituted 48% of this international migrant stock. There are an estimated 36.1 million migrant children, 4.4 million international students and 150.3 million migrant workers.
- Approximately 31% of the international migrant stock worldwide reside in Asia, 30% in Europe, 26% in the Americas, 10% in Africa and 3% in Oceania.
![]()
| Need to Know:
Who are migrants? The UN Migration Agency (IOM) defines a migrant as any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of
- The person’s legal status;
- whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary;
- what the causes for the movement are; or
- Data on migration
|
Short Analysis of the Issue:
Issue: An influx of immigrants into the local population, the supply of labour goes up and, hence, wages are bound to fall as competition for jobs increases.
Indirect Effects of Influx of Immigration:
French Economists on Indirect Effect:
As per the economist, the influx of migrants can have a direct effect on the job and as a result, the supply of labour goes up.
- But, in a retrospective sense, it has indirect effects as well. One indirect effect of a rise in migrants is the overall increase in demand for goods and services.
- This works well for the overall economy and the population as a whole. The local population tends not to acknowledge this.
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo:
As per Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo: Immigration slows down mechanization: The promise of a reliable supply of low-wage workers makes it less attractive to adopt labor-saving technologies.”
- This goes a long way in helping save jobs. Further, immigrants internationally and migrants locally are ready to take on jobs, which locals are not.
- As Banerjee and Duflo write: “Migrants complement, rather than compete with, native labour as they are willing to perform tasks that natives are unwilling to carry out.”