Migration is the movement of humans from one area to another. The history of migration dates back to the first days of human beings. It has always been the way of life of human beings. People migrate for various reasons, which include; poverty, medication, fun, wars and natural calamities (Samers, 2010). Today, migration is being taken in a more diverse approach. Many countries are keener on immigration issues. This is due to the impacts that the issue of migration is resulting to in areas of economy, safety and the nation’s programming. The most obvious countries that are fighting immigration are the United States of America and The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s Story Against Illegal Immigrants
Migration in Saudi Arabia in search for jobs and settlement has been on the rise among its neighbors. The citizens of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and other South East Asian are most affected. The reasons for this migration are the pursuit of the myriad career prospects and better living conditions. Many immigrants are the ones in search of employment compared to nonimmigrant. Most of them are better educated and have a greater working experience than nonimmigrant (Adamson, 2006).
The treatment of immigrants in Saudi Arabia is still the same as the US if not worse. Immigrants, who have lived in Saudi Arabia in their entire life and have settled down, have been ill treated and discriminated. Many of them have not yet secured citizenship. Foreigners are hurriedly deported to their countries upon expiration of their work and study contracts and visas. On the other hand, attaining citizenship in the US is not strong compared to Saudi Arabia. Immigration to US is primarily due to better living conditions, formal education and decent paying jobs. Treatment of immigrants in USA is less bad than in Saudi Arabia (Adamson, 2006).
The Great Wall of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia built a wall along its 500 miles border with Iraq that cost them $7 billion. The ultramodern fence combines fencing, electronic sensors and sand breams. Saudi Arabian diplomats say the fence intends to prevent weapon smuggling, drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Nail Al- Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington says that their intentions are to stop the illegal entry of people from other countries through the border of Saudi Arabia. However, this is not enough to ensure total security in the Arabian soil (ACME, 2003).
In the western part, of the world, Mexico and United States share a barrier known as the perimeter fence or boundary fence. It operates to prevent unauthorized movement, trafficking of drugs from Latin America and illegal migration. The border fences are extremely well positioned to mitigate the entering and leaving of anything between Mexico and United States international border into the Southwestern United States. To many politicians of these countries, the border is their talking point where Americans are in wait of a secure existence (Garza, 2010). The distance between Saudi Arabia and the US, is more than 8,000 miles yet, they suffer from the same problem of illegal migration. Nevertheless, they are all trying to stop it using the same mechanisms. Building a perimeter wall is one of the ways to solve this growing problem (Garza, 2010).
George Bush Proposal of Guest Worker Program
There have been ongoing discussions due to the contradicting standpoints of the government officials and the public regarding the issue of illegal Mexican immigrants. Former US President George Bush tried to convince people to become more liberal when it comes to embracing the presence of immigrants in their United States (Borjas, 2007). He proposed to the creation of guest worker program. The government officials and the people are aware that, the presence of immigrants has been beneficial to their economy. The Mexico immigrants, however, were to benefit most from the proposal because of their geographical location. This is because they share the massive border with several US states. Therefore, it means that they can easily enter and look for jobs with the use of their official documents. The documents also protect their rights and treatment of illegal immigrants (Borjas, 2007).
The Immigrants’ Effect on the US Economy
The immigrants’ need for social integration and reform was heard in the early 90s. Nevertheless, the attempts to meet this requirement came much later. United States significantly benefits from the presence of well-educated immigrants, which reflects in its financial data analysis. The country needs these people to increase its workforce through filling up different positions with qualified professionals who are mostly immigrants. To attract more immigrants, US should establish credible and legal immigration laws (Wilson & Donnan, 2012).
The persisting debate regarding how immigration affects the economy is highly dependent on people’s attitude. Different economic aspects are in discussion, such as the standard wages, job creation, prices of commodities and taxes. The Mexican immigrants are an excellent example of both highly educated immigrants that support the US economy by working as professionals. Others are poor, illegal immigrants, running away from poverty, low income and other problems they face daily in Mexico (Wilson & Donnan, 2012).
The Present Mexican Immigrants under the USA Social Stereotype
The current scenario in the United States is different for immigrants. Mexican immigrants do low-paying jobs since they are subject to attending to any job to escape from poverty in their native land. Although there is no significant economic impact of immigration in the USA, cultural integration remains a greater challenge. A program of social integration for aliens should be developed to include both immigrants and permanent residents for equal benefits of the country. There has been a significant decrease when it comes to number of illegal immigrants residing in the US, but the tension over their implications continues to grow (Robin & Kelley, 1997).
The USA Versus Illegal Immigrants
The US government applied several policies to address issues on illegal immigration. George Bush and Barrack Obama have different strategies when it comes to addressing this issue. Bush provided amnesty to illegal immigrants by creating a guest worker program. In the immigrants’ point of view, migration is a taste of change. When these immigrants enter the United States, the residents try to change them into what their culture expects. Sooner or later, the immigrants will no longer be immigrants; they will soon be similar with the rest. Huge populations of the people in California are originally from Mexico, even if some of them unfamiliar with their situation, since they have never traced their own family roots. When it comes to fundamental values like faith in democracy, the rule of law, tolerance, equal treatment for all, respect for the country and its shared heritage, it is the responsibility of immigrants to adopt those values. Tolerance is part of what makes the United States (Millard, 2010).
Alabama Immigration Law – HB 56
The Alabama HB 56 means Hammond-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection act. It gives police the right to question anyone who looks suspicious. It also allows police the power to stop the young immigrants from getting into schools and other education institutions. It also allows the police officers to inspect the documents for the school children to prove their legality. This new immigration law of the state of Alabama aroused people’s anger. They argue that it is against human rights. This is because the children are being barred from schooling, reasons being that their parents are not legal citizens of the country of Alabama (Abrams & Kerry, 2009). The argument is that, children are guilty and, therefore, should be allowed to school. This argument may be just because the same children can acquire citizenship by birth despite that their parents are immigrants. Their parents should also be allowed to get the citizenship in any way possible. This law may be against the human rights and ethics. People should not be segregated on their ethical and tribal background. If immigration was to be fought, then the world’s body on immigrants should have a program to extensively deal with the situation. Education should be separately looked at and be addressed as a matter of concern particularly to immigrant children (Abrams & Kerry, 2009).
Adapting to the New Environment / The Future Of Mexican Immigrants
Some people create a threat to small and cohesive communities who are striving for modernization. Modernization has more advantages since it alleviates cultural barriers and brings cultures together forming a global society. It does not matter whether the small communities are from USA, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Africa and other countries like Yemen or Syria, the traditional world of such communities is each day striving to offer accordance to their people. Despite the efforts that they make, the outside world influences their continued practices. The lives of the people in traditional communities are strongly dictated by beliefs, values and belief. As the power of tradition weakens, they see their lives as an unending set of options; a process known as individualization. People become more responsive to change which makes them have questions at their tradition. They start taking control of their own lives and of their neighbors (Corwin, 1978).
In conclusion, immigration in the world is on the rise and, unless appropriate measures and guidelines are made and well defined to regulate it. It all starts from prevention of tribal based wars, poverty, creation of jobs and other measures.
References
- Abrams & Kerry (2009). The hidden dimension of nineteenth century immigration law. New York: Routledge.
- ACME (2003). Engagements, borders, and immigration: A symposium. An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 2 (2), p. 200.
- Adamson, F. B. (2006). Crossing borders. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Borjas, G. J. (2007). Mexican migration to the United States. Chicago: National Bureau of Economic Research.
- Corwin, F. A. (1978). Immigrants – and immigrants: Perspectives on Mexican labor migration to the United States. Texas: Greenwood Press.
- Garza, F. (2010). The U.S – Mexico border fence: An exploration of the effectiveness of this immigration policy. New York: University of Texas–Pan American.
- Millard, A. (2010). Land, people, politics and ignorance. New York: Xlibris Corporation.
- Robin, D. G. & Kelley (1997). Yo’ Mama’s dysfunctional! Fighting culture wars in urban America. Boston: Beacon.
- Samers, M. (2010). Migration. New York: Routledge.
- Wilson, T. M. & Donnan, H. (2012). A companion to border studies. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Limited.