Policy to Restrict Immigration

Globalization is the mechanism by which corporations are globally incorporated with economies worldwide (Beck, 2015). As integration happens, it allows goods and services to flow, migration and immigration, capital flow, culture and technical change across international boundaries. Globalization has therefore encouraged companies to grow to a wider market, sell diversified consumer products and services and even outsource employees (Beck, 2015). The free movement of people has contributed to a great deal of debate about globalization, foreign trade and workplace discrimination. Immigration movements have been witnessed from the time of great depression that began in 1815. People from all over the world started streaming in the more developed countries like the United States in search for the chance of a better life, pursuit of happiness and liberty. The migrants were from various countries such as Germany, Mexico, and Ireland during the 19th century (Hirst, Thompson, & Bromley, 2015). The paper will discuss the effects of globalization on the world. It will also discuss on how immigration has impacted the United States and the controversy around globalization.

Strict laws restraining the influx of immigrants especially in the developing countries were put in place during the great depression. In 1917 the United States enacted policies that restricted the type and number of foreigners allowed in the country. Further to that, national immigration quotas were established four years later (Lombardo, 2017). The restrictive immigration laws in the US began even before globalization had become heightened. The first immigration act was instituted in 1924 and was meant limit the number of migrants that were getting into the country. The act instituted the national origins quota and was meant to only provide visas to only 2% of the number of migrants from every nationality. Even prior to the implementation of the 1924, back in 1917 the congress had passed a law that restricted the migrants based on the reading abilities. The act also had restricted persons from Asia and this was in exception of the Filipinos and the Japanese. The literacy test was restrictive policy which was enough to deny many immigrants seeking to get to the US. Despite these restrictive policies the number of migrants has continuously increased and this presented its own problems. Globalization has allowed allowing foreign citizens to enter the country in search of better opportunities has led to the loss of job opportunities by the local native workers. When professional skilled workers began moving into the more developed countries, the home countries lose on skilled labor. These countries were left without a qualified workforce (Lombardo, 2017).

Compensation for skilled workers in the United States has grown since the late 1970s, while the wages of the low skilled workers have either stagnated or dropped. There has however been an inequality in the wages which has been attributed to more companies willing to employ undocumented migrants as they will demand lower wages (Mueller et al, 2017). It has had a ripple effect as most skilled workers in the US are now facing pay cuts in favor of the low paid immigrant workers (Foged and Peri, 2016). Further, many companies in the US have opted to shift to Mexico as workers in this country are willing to offer their services at a lower wage compared to that in the US. Since the company is benefiting in terms of reduced operational costs, the US citizens are on the other hand are suffering with increased employment rates.

Brain drain has become a phenomenon in most of the developing countries and is majorly characterized by the human capital flight. It is not something new and has had extensive impact in the globalized world as there is free mobility of workers across the world. The reasons why people migrate are different from one region to another. For instance, persons from eastern Europe migrate to the EU or the US in search of better paying jobs or higher social securities. While on the other hand people from Africa migrate as a result of corruption, political instability and poverty. Brain drain results in the shrinking in the workforce and the majority of the population becomes made up of the aging population. In these countries such governments face a strain in their budgets as pensions need to be paid while on the other hand there is a deficit in the tax revenues

Globalization has made to be a village and as result many companies have expanded to other nations to expand their markets and therefore increased their sales revenues. Nonetheless, globalization has seen the fall of great companies due to increase in competition (Geddes, & Scholten, 2016). In the UK there are many fashion shops in the high streets that have been forced out of business due to the unsustainable cost of doing business. It is based on this that most companies are now opting to reduce their production costs so as to keep up with rival companies that have their manufacturing plants in low cost production zones. Certainly, international trade has seen the increase in foreign outsourcing especially in the developing countries and in eastern Asia. The cost of production in the developed world is very high and this attributed to the high taxation and the high minimum wage that the governments have set. The result is that countries such as China and Taiwan have been sought by many multinationals as they offer cheaper labor and lower taxes. That notwithstanding governments in this countries have provided incentives for such companies to established their operations. For example, Nike produces its footwear in Asian firms while Dell also began outsourcing its peripheral devices and computer components (Felbermayr, Grossmann, and Kohler. 2015). It is this reason that the government run by president trump feels that it is time multinationals return back to the US as the country accounts for decreased tax revenues which now has shifted to the cheap production countries such as china.

According to Puga (2014) Market liberalization has been responsible for increasing society connectivity and multiple innovative evolutions such as transport and information technology. According to a research done by Zhang and Rasiah (2015), the technological change has created a link between industrialization, trade, and geographic concentration. It has been critical because globalization and use of technology have dramatically changed how people work or live. Lower communication costs have enabled people to stop working from just the cities hence de-urbanization of countries (Kopan, & Agiesta, 2017). The technological change has however led to displacement and loss of turnover of companies, and workers losing their jobs. According to the research by Zhang and Rasiah, there was an intense emphasis on the overall workplace growth. Technological advancements have increased pressure on skilled workers as they begin to use a machine to do things they were used to manually. Companies that do not take up technology begin shutting down. In the long run, one imperative consequence of the technological change is the sectoral regulation in the economy. As policies begin to be put in place that regulate the technological production of goods and services. Traditional trade theory claims that an opening up of the economy through technological advancement needs some sectors to expand and others contract (Dix-Carneiro and Kovak, 2017). There is also the case of skill bias, where demand for people who understand machine skills begin to increase as compared to other manual skills. The change in processing and manufacturing caused by the technological industrialization have had a great effect on the economy. Subsequent to the opening up of the economy a skill might be on demand at the expense of another. Skilled labor, particularly that technology savvy has been relocated over time, as the demand increases.

The United States has put in place immigration policies over the years. President Trump has been really tough on the illegal immigration with proposed measures such as promising to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to prevent immigration. He also has threatened to deport the illegal immigrants. His tough talk has seen in the recent time been executed as he has banned the entry of citizens of eight nationalities which includes; Somalia, Iran, Libya, and Yemen. There is a trend that has been seen from the advent of immigration laws as in his era alone it is only two percent of migrants have been given visas, but this has excluded all immigrants from Asia. Back in 1965, Congress changed the policy on immigration where it eliminated the quotas of people. It allowed foreign citizens to get a visa into the United States without considering their nationality. The law favored people with skills which saw an increase in the number of immigrants from Asia (Greenwood and Ward, 2015). Currently as globalization evolves, countries are now passing strict laws to allow only a specific number or type of foreign nationals to settle in their countries.

Conclusion

Globalization has transformed all labor market. Countries such as the United States are however not willing to accept immigrants the same way they have allowed the flow of goods and services. Uncontrolled immigration has attributed the fear of elimination of culture and jobs. Nonetheless, it has had a positive impact as it has led to a sustainable economic growth in economies and societies. There has been a long history of immigration in advanced countries such as the United States hence they have over the years had policies that limit the free entry of people. On the contrary the parent countries of these migrants tend to suffer from brain drain, where the skilled workers leave the country and cause a shortage of skilled workers. The developing world has imposed restrictive policies all aimed at reducing the number of migrants. The US under the trump leadership has been on the forefront for championing for the curtailing of the migrants surge in the country. For instance, in the recent times the trump administration has banned migrants from seven middle eastern countries and this elicited sharp criticism. Will these restrictive policies going to work? It will evidently be a short term solution as some may perceive but one that doesn’t address the root cause of the problem.

References

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Dix-Carneiro, R., & Kovak, B. K. (2017). Trade liberalization and regional dynamics. American Economic Review, 107(10), 2908-46.

Felbermayr, G., Grossmann, V., & Kohler, W. (2015). Migration, international trade, and capital formation: Cause or effect?. In Handbook of the economics of international migration (Vol. 1, pp. 913-1025). North-Holland.

Foged, M., & Peri, G. (2016). Immigrants' effect on native workers: New analysis on longitudinal data. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 8(2), 1-34.

Geddes, A., & Scholten, P. (2016). The politics of migration and immigration in Europe. Sage.

Greenwood & Ward, Z. (2015). Immigration quotas, World War I, and emigrant flow from the United States in the early 20th century. Explorations in Economic History, 55, 76-96.

Hirst, P., Thompson, G., & Bromley, S. (2015). Globalization in question. John Wiley & Sons.

Kopan, T., & Agiesta, J. (2017). CNN/ORC poll: Americans break with Trump on immigration policy. CNN. com. www. CNN. com/2017/03/17/politics/poll-oppose-trump-deportation-immigration-policy.

Mueller, H. M., Ouimet, P. P., & Simintzi, E. (2017). Wage inequality and firm growth. American Economic Review, 107(5), 379-83.

Puga, D., & Trefler, D. (2014). International trade and institutional change: Medieval Venice’s response to globalization. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2), 753-821.