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31.01.2014 Feature Article

Developing A National Immigration Policy: Key Factors To Consider

Developing A National Immigration Policy: Key Factors To Consider
31.01.2014 LISTEN

Introduction

Unprecedented increase in cross-border flows of people[1], linked to globalisation, surging armed conflicts and international inequality[2], amid on-going demographic and economic shifts, added to growing anti-immigration sentiments in host countries[3] have forced many governments to rethink their immigration policies, particularly those in predominantly migrant-receiving nations.

How then should national immigration policies be (re)formulated against this backdrop? Below, I outline the key internal and external factors that, in my view, out to be considered by governments when crafting their immigration policy, following an explanation of what immigration policy is.

The European Commission defines immigration policy as “the laws and procedures designed to deal with people wishing to enter a particular jurisdiction”. From this definition, we can infer that an immigration policy comprise a range of legislations and intents that cover pertinent issues such as who can enter a country; how many people can be admitted on a yearly basis; the criteria to apply in determining who is qualified to enter; if and how long it will take for the various classes of immigrants to attain citizenship; and code of conduct, among others. While various descriptions of immigrants exist based on their characteristics (such as gender, age, qualification and skills), purpose and motive for migrating, the three most common ones are family, labour and refugees.

In developing a national immigration policy, certain key factors must be taken into account by governments. These factors can be put into two major categories, namely internal and external factors.

Internal Factors
Economic prosperity constitutes the primary goal of all governments. It is therefore only reasonable to expect that any immigration policy ought to be driven principally by national economic needs and interests. This, in practice, means linking the size and composition of immigrants a country can absorb to its economic conditions (including GDP growth, labour market conditions, employment, wages, etc) vis-à-vis labour force requirements and demographic trends. For instance, seasonal labour shortages may be addressed through temporary work programs, while a projected long-term workforce decline may require settlement schemes. Another economic consideration is the expected fiscal impact of immigration — that is, how much it affects government revenue and spending, which leads us to the next factor worth considering. Off course, it must be underscored that not all classes of migrants will (or should) be admitted into a country strictly on the basis of economic factors as I shall explain below.

The second factor governments have to consider when developing their immigration policy is public health. “The health of a nation”, it is said, “is the wealth of a nation”. This means it is every government's responsibility to safeguard the health of their citizens. Thus, attention should be given to the health status of those coming in, so that newcomers do not seriously compromise the wellbeing of the population or even overburden the healthcare system. This is important because of rising cost of healthcare and ageing infrastructure in many countries.

Related to healthcare is how immigration will impact the quality and delivery of other social and public services, especially education, housing and social security. The latter is often a matter of debate in many immigrant-receiving developed nations in Europe and North America, with opposing sides arguing that immigration adversely affects and improves the solvency of the social security system. Social security here refers to monies paid to retirees and disabled workers, their dependents and survivors of deceased workers. However, as many studies have shown, this depends on several factors, including the age, skill level or type of work done by immigrants and their fertility rates. But the general view is that, since social security benefits are progressive and tend to benefit low income workers than do high income workers, immigration will have a negative (or slightly positive) effect of social security if all or most immigrants are low-skilled, low-wage workers with a low fertility rate. Contrariwise, the solvency of social security finances will be greatly enhanced if all or most immigrants are highly-skilled and highly-paid workers who also had more children. But neither scenario is practical, however [4].

National security is another important issue governments have to factor into their immigration policy. Recent upsurge in global terrorism and transnational crime oblige governments to secure their borders against those who pose a security risk to their population.

Linked to security is political and social stability — that is, how to ensure that newcomers do not threaten internal political stability and social harmony. Like the two factors described above, this is increasingly becoming a matter of public concern as well in a number of developed nations in particular that have maintained an open immigration policy, which leads us to the seventh factor policy makers must think about when crafting their immigration policy.

The point is this: immigration will inevitably affect national identity and character. Therefore, each country must ultimately decide what kind of society (and image) they want to have or create (i.e., homogenous or heterogeneous, open or close, or maintain a policy of multiculturalism as opposed to assimilation, etc). This brings to fore the need for encouraging public dialogue about the issue of immigration and incorporating societal views into national immigration policy decision-making. Despite the difficulty of reaching a national consensus on the issue of immigration in most countries, it is nevertheless important for governments to gain enough political support if their immigration policy is to succeed.

External Factors
Apart from the internal issues highlighted above for governments to factor into their immigration policy, certain outside factors must also be borne in mind by governments when developing their domestic immigration policy as these may invariably affect aspects of the policy. These external factors include existing international conventions on migration such as the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1971 International Labour Organisation's Migrant Worker Convention, which respectively stipulates the rights of refugees and migrant workers that must be guaranteed by host nations. The 1951 Refugee Convention, for example, prohibits signatory states from refusing entry to refugees or restricting their movements within their national borders. Other exogenous factors governments have to consider in designing their immigration policy are foreign relations, trade agreements, conditions at potential source countries, and membership in regional communities. For example, participation in regional communities (such as the EU) may require the governments of member states to maintain a somewhat uniform immigration policy, constraining them in particular from enacting differential immigration policies toward citizens of member states.

Conclusion
Developing an immigration policy is a complex, multi-dimensional issue that requires careful consideration of myriad internal and external factors such as those discussed above, including an understanding of its associated benefits and costs.

Author information
Name: Komiete Tetteh,
Email: [email protected]

Notes
[1]. According to the International Migration Organisation (IMO), there were 214 million international migrants (that is, those living outside their country of birth) in the world as of 2010 or 3.1% of the world's population. This figure represents a colossal 159% increase over the 82.5 million immigrants in the world in 1970, reflecting the scale of modern-day transnational population movements.

[2] See Coiler. P. (2013). How Migration is Changing Our World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3] Public concerns about immigrants in host countries abound—some real, other perceived—and they range from economic “worries” about immigrants stealing native jobs and exploiting the welfare state, to allegations of crime committed by “foreigners”, to social anxiety about “newcomers” changing the traditional values, culture and identity of host nations', etc. However, as scholars such as Giovanni and Steinhardt (2011) have noted, the debate on immigration tends to be more political and ideologically laden than empirically-based since many studies find little evidence in particular to support a number of the economic arguments against immigration. Furthermore, it has been observed that anti-immigration sentiments tend to be higher in host nations during periods of economic slowdown and vice versa (see Beets and Wilikens, 2009).

[4] Van de Water, P. (2008, Nov 28). Immigration and Social Security. Centre for Budget and Policy Priorities. Accessed from http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1272

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