Illegal Immigration

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IM

• The neoclassical economic model looks only at how much of a "pull" the destination country has in terms of better-paying jobs and improvements in quality of life& how much of a "push" that comes from negative conditions in the home country like lack of employment or economic mobility.

• Neoclassical theory looks at probability of successful illegal emigration

• Factors include geographic proximity, border enforcement, probability and consequences of arrest, ease of illegal employment, and chances of future legalization

• This model concludes that in the destination country, illegal workers tend to add to and compete with the pool of unskilled laborers

• Illegal workers are successful in finding employment by being willing to be paid lower wages than native-born workers are, sometimes below the minimum wage

• Economist George Borias supports aspects of this model, calculating that real wages of US workers without a high school degree declined by 9% from 1980-2000 due to competition from illegal immigrant workers

• This model concludes that in the destination country, illegal workers tend to add to and compete with the pool of unskilled laborers

• Illegal workers are successful in finding employment by being willing to be paid lower wages than native-born workers are, sometimes below the minimum wage

• Economist George Borias supports aspects of this model, calculating that real wages of US workers without a high school degree declined by 9% from 1980-2000 due to competition from illegal immigrant workers

• recently developing countries pursuing the benefits of globalization by joining agreements to liberalize trade

• rapid opening of domestic markets may lead to displacement of large numbers of agricultural or unskilled workers --> more likely to seek employment and a higher quality of life by illegal emigration

• ex. North American Free Trade Association may have impoverished Mexican farmers who were unable to compete with the higher productivity of US agriculture, especially for corn

• NAFTA may have also unexpectedly raised educational requirements for industrial jobs in Mexico, since the new factories produced export products requiring skills and education that many unskilled workers did not have

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• Douglas Massey - Structural Demand Theory

• Split in labor market in developed nations creates a structural demand for unskilled immigrant labour to fill undesirable jobs that native-born citizens do not take foreign workers

• This theory states that postindustrial economies have a widening gap between well-paying, white-collar jobs that require ever higher levels of education, which native-born citizens and legal immigrants can qualify to take, and bottom-tier jobs that are stigmatized and require no education

• "underclass" jobs include harvesting crops, unskilled labor in landscaping and construction, house-cleaning, and maid and busboy work in hotels and restaurants, all of which have a disproportionate number of illegal workers

• Since middle-class blue collar jobs in manufacturing and industry--> younger generations require higher education with loss of "respectable" blue-collar careers that a worker with no formal education can find

• majority of new blue-collar jobs are the "underclass" work mentioned above, which suffer from unreliability (i.e. temporary jobs versus a career in a factory), subservient roles, and, critically, a lack of potential for advancement. At the same time, entry-level white-collar and service jobs are much more appealing

• theory holds that in a developed country like the US (~ 12% of the labor force has < than a high school education)

• there is a lack of native-born workers who have no choice but to take undesirable manual labor jobs

• Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, have much lower levels of education (about 70% of illegal workers in the US from Mexico lack a high school degree

• willing to take "underclass" jobs due to their much higher relative wages than those in their home country

• working only temporarily, lack of opportunity for advancement is less of a problem.

• Ex. one Pew Hispanic Center poll of over 3,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico in the US - found that 79% would voluntarily join a temporary worker program that allowed them to work legally for several years but then required them to leave

• structural demand theory - willingness to work undesirable jobs for low wages, is what gives illegal immigrants their employment

• theory argues that cases like this show that there is no direct competition between unskilled illegal immigrants and native-born workers- concept that illegal immigrants "take jobs that no one else wants” & that illegal immigrants are not "lowering wages" or stealing jobs from native-born workers

• Italy Japan Jupiter UK France Australia

Reasons for Illegal Immigration

1.Poverty • poorest classes in a developing country may lack the resources needed to attempt to cross illegally or connections to friends/family already in the destination country

• increases in poverty increase the likelihood of illegal migration.

• Ex. The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico (result of NAFTA) was associated with widespread poverty and a lower valuation for the peso relative to the dollar --> start of a massive swell in Mexican emigration

• net illegal migration to the US increased every year from the mid-1990s until the mid 2000s

Reasons for Illegal Immigration

2. Overpopulation • Pop. Growth > carrying capacity of coutnry/env’t

• Overpop. Lead to pollution, water & poverty• World pop. from 1.6 bill. In 1900 yo 6.82 bill 2010• Mexico 13.6 million 1900 to 107.56 million 2010• China 400 million in 1900 to1.34 billion 2010• India 234 million in 1900 to 1.18 billion in 2010• UN est. world’s pop. rate of 1.14% (75 million people per year 203,800 per day) per year

• By 2050 world pop. to 9.4 billion (adding 1 billion people every 12 years) - most growth in developing world

Reasons for Illegal Immigration

3. Reunification of families

• If unable to reunite families through sponsorship programs (not meeting criteria or over quotas)

• may force their family members to enter illegally to reunify

• Douglas Massey finds that the likelihood of a Mexican national to emigrate illegally to the US increases dramatically if they have one or more family members already residing in the United States, legally or illegally

Reasons for Illegal Immigration

4. War/Conflict• desire to escape civil war or repression in the country of origin

• Persecution, abuse, bullying, repression & genocide

• for emigrants who have escaped a war or repression and have illegal crossed into another state those who are unwilling to apply or have been denied asylum status become "illegal immigrants" and may be subject to punishment or deportation

• Columbia, El Salvador, Sir Lanka

Methods

1.Border crossing : Immigrants from nations that do not have automatic visa agreements, or who would not otherwise qualify for a visa, often cross the borders illegally’

• Ex. Dominican Rebublic & Puerto Rice

• Strait of Gibraltar Fuerteventura & Strait of Otranto

• Dangerous --> death suffocate in shipping containers, boxcars, trucks, sink in shipwrecks (poor vessels), die of dehydration, exposure to elements

• Human smugglings help crossing borders (coyote , snakehead gangs or smuggler) pay $$$ to have someone help you cross border safely --> risk abuse and death at hands of smugglers Malta Illegal

• Human trafficking - not free to go once border has been crossed

Methods

2.Overstaying visas: Most illegal immigrants enter a country legally and then overstay or violate visa

• Ex. most of the ~ 200,000-500,000 illegal immigrants in Canada are refugee claimants whose refugee applications were rejected but who have not yet been ejected from the country

• Ex. Children of illegal immigrants born in destination country (anchor baby) - jus soli ("right of territory")anchor

• France until 1994 and Ireland until 2005 possible to obtain French or Irish nationality solely by being born in France or in Ireland before

• No a French born child of foreign parents does not automatically obtain French nationality until they are an adult

• Since 1st of January 2005, a child born in Ireland does not automatically acquire Irish nationality unless certain conditions are met (one parent must be Irish/British)

Dangers

1.Slavery women, men & children smuggled into to countries illegally

• People --> kidnapped or tricked into slavery to work as laborers, for example in factories

2. Prostitution - Some people forced into sexual slavery

3. Death - each year there are several hundred illegal immigrant deaths occur as people are making the illegal crossing --> exposure, unsafe conditions, border patrol

Spatial Distribution

Angola - illegal immigrants from Democratic Republic of Congo

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400,000 illegal migrants have been expelled

Spatial Distribution

Argentina - European immigration is not restricted, limited or burdened with any tax whatsoever for foreigners who - tilling the soil, improving industries, and introducing and teaching arts and sciences

Constitution of Argentina makes impossible the existence of such a thing as "illegal immigration,” Africa

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Undocumented immigrants 50,00-250,000

Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal

Spatial Distribution

Brazil - ~1.4 million illegal aliens • attracted to Brazil as illegals receive same legal

legal privileges as native Brazilians regarding access to social services (education and health care)

Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, China, North Korea, & Sub-Sahara Africa

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Spatial Distribution

Bhutan - Illegals from Nepal

. In 1985 gov’t passed a new Citizenship Act which clarified and attempted to enforce the 1958 Citizenship Act to control the flood of illegal immigration

Those who could not provide proof of residency prior to 1958 were deemed illegal immigrants

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Spatial Distribution

Chile -illegals from Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia & Sub-Saharan Africa

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Spatial Distribution

China - defectors from North Korea, Mongolia and Africa

Rural

North Korea

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Spatial Distribution

Greece - Albania (work)

600,000-800,000

Eygpt

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Spatial Distribution

Russia - 200,000 enter every year mostly from former republics

~10-12 million

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Spatial Distribution

Saudi Arabia - Yemen, Iraq

Building fence along these borders

border

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Benefits

• Work jobs that residents do not want to do - low paying

• Pay taxes

• contribute to the economy (buy stuff)

• Fill in gap of aging population retiring

• Low wages help various sectors of the economy remain competitive (agr., restaurants, garment industry, cleaning, dietary)

• http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2654583n

Costs

• Informal economy --> no taxes paid to support programs

• Drain on programs --> illegals have access to health care and education for children

• When economic recession --> blamed for problems

• Strain on services/department to keep them out

• Strain on resources (esp. Countries that cannot afford own people)

• Wages undercut native residents (can’t compete)

• Poor treatment of illegal migrants

• Arizona immigration law

• Singapore Greece Riots