Should immigrants have complete freedom to migrate?

“Immigration is a good thing. We should make that as easy as possible”. Gary Johnson. Immigration is
described as the action of moving to another country, either by choice or by force, for an abundance
of reasons. When the choice is made to immigrate, it is often due to having better access to better
security, education or health care. When migration is forced, it is often due to factors such as
xenophobia, persecution risks, conflicts or natural disasters. It is cases like this that challenge the
current immigration laws, and because of this, while immigrants should not have complete freedom
to migrate, immigration laws should be changed and adapted to allow for economic and cultural
growth.

If immigration laws are changed and adapted, then there may be economic gain and growth. Most of
the money made in the host country will also be spent in the host country. As stated on the website
xpressmoney: “By expanding the workforce, immigrants increase the level of output, which is one of
the main drivers of economic growth. As immigrants are not bound to a particular part of the host
country, they are free to move and take up jobs wherever the need is greatest”. In essence, this
statement is conveying that the labour market will increase with immigration and, directly
proportionate to this, the average hours worked will increase.

On the contrary, it may be argued that immigration will increase unemployment rates and add strain
to the economy and government due to an increased dependency ratio. However, several sources
have shown that immigration often does not affect unemployment rates at all, and when it does, it is
usually kept in certain groups (e.g. jobs that require little education). As for the increased
dependency ratio, it is possible to limit how many immigrants of a certain age group move into the
country. For example, Australia only allows you to immigrate up to the age of 45, after that you can
only immigrate permanently if you have made investments within Australia or are moving due to
marriage. Evidence has proven that this is, in fact, affective. The website “Population pyramids”
shows that since incorporating the immigration age limit in 2014, Australia’s population pyramid has
become more stationary, with an increased working age group. Australia’s GDP is currently at an
average of 1.323 trillion USD according to the world bank. All of the above shows evidence of how
immigration can lead to economic gain and growth.
Another benefit of changing immigration laws to allow for more people to migrate is cultural and
social growth and increased diversity.

If immigration laws do start to allow an increased rate of migration and the boundaries of these laws
are expanded, then there may be social and cultural growth. With people immigrating from all over
the world, new customs and ideas are introduced, and these are often the ideas that lead to
advancements in fields such as technology and science. We already see evidence of cultural
integration every day, for example, Britain’s national food is considered to be chicken tikka masala,
something that is originally from India. While some people may say that that is proof that immigrants
are destroying culture, a study done by the newspaper “Newsweek” and “the conversationalist” in
2012 has actually proven the opposite, showing that someone from Britain is no less likely to
participate in their own national events (such as bonfire night) after participating in a different
cultural event (such as Diwali).

Furthermore, studies (such as the Lazear study from 1999) have proven that diversity among groups
may actually increase productive and efficiency due to an increased range of prior knowledge, skills
and experiences. Other studies (such as Hogan and Page from 2001), further discuss how diversity
can increase problem solving and critical thinking and that “heterogeneous groups of people with
limited abilities can do better than homogeneous groups of high-ability problem-solvers”, essentially
stating that mixed groups of people (in terms of race, gender, religion, etc.) are more likely to solve
higher level problems even if they have limited abilities as opposed to groups of people that are very
similar even if they have a larger spectrum of abilities. This can be applied in terms of immigration,
where it can be assumed that more progress will be made across different fields when people from
different races, religions, ethnicities, genders and backgrounds work together according to our prior
knowledge from previous studies. The information presented in the statement above further proves
that immigration helps to expand cultural and social boundaries and increases diversity.

From the above statements it is evident that complete freedom to migrate should not be possible,
however, immigration laws should be reformed, changed and adapted to our changing society.

As is apparent, immigration doesn’t just affect the immigrants, but is also important to enhance a
countries cultural spectrum and to improve the economy of a country. However, complete freedom
to migrate may lead to overpopulation and economic strain if the dependency ratio increases too
rapidly and becomes too large, which is why there must still be some immigration laws and
regulations. If possible, laws should be completely non-discriminatory and should allow a wide range
of people to immigrate, although, in some cases this won’t be possible (e.g. China, because of the
already disrupted male to female ratio) and immigration should not be further forced. Even so, the
positive aspects of allowing immigration outweigh several of the negative effects, making it apparent
that immigration should be made easy and legal worldwide.

Bibliography:

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