Migration and Immigration (an Economic Issue)
The evidence suggests that our human ancestors evolved in Africa. From there they first migrated out into Europe and Asia, and then to the rest of the world. Even with the world now being overrun with humans, many individuals are still migrating from one place to another. For the most part, the underlying reason for these migrations has stayed pretty much the same. It all boils down to us looking to find someplace where we and our children can have a better life.
The evidence suggests that our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in groups that averaged about 30 individuals. The size of these groups was dependent on how much food was available in the territories where they foraged for food. The size of a territory was limited by how far someone could walk when foraging, which would have resulted in an area of about 5 or 6 square miles. That would have given our hunter-gatherer ancestors a population density of about 5 or 6 individuals per square mile. As a group’s population grew, it would have reached a point where there was not enough food within their territory to support everyone. If some individuals did not leave the group, some of them might have starved.
In the simplest case, a hunter-gatherer group would have split into two groups, with one group moving to a nearby territory that was not controlled by another group. The new territory may have been adjacent to their old one or it may have been tens or hundreds of miles away. Eventually, our ancestors spread out over most of the land that could support a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Without new territories to move to, we had to find ways to live in less hospitable locations, find ways of getting more food from our current territories, fight to take over another group’s territory, or suffer food shortages that might have led to starvation.
Although many hunter-gatherers did die of starvation or in battle, some of them turned to agriculture. By planting crops and raising livestock, these new farmers and ranchers were able to produce more food with which to support larger groups. With this change, life started getting more complicated. We now needed to know how to make tools like hoes, plows and wagons, and to understand plant growth, planting seasons, irrigation and food storage methods. We also had more to protect. Previously, we just needed to protect our territory, but then we also needed to protect our tools, crops and livestock. This led to the need to create more and better weapons and fortifications.
As time went by, we developed even better tools and agricultural methods, which allowed for even higher population densities. The new and improved tools and weapons were made of metal instead of wood and stone, which meant the development of and the improvements in mining, smelting, trade and transportation. With an increase in the knowledge and skill needed to perform various functions, we needed to further specialize in the type of work we did. For instance, many of us became craftsmen, miners, traders, soldiers and leaders. This trend continued and has led us to the industrial and technological age in which we now live.
Even with all our advances in agriculture and technology, and our investments made in building permanent towns and cities, there are still reasons for us to migrate. Floods, droughts, fires, earthquakes, volcanic activity and other natural disasters destroy farms and homes and can force many of the survivors to move. Even without a natural disaster, we may live in a place that becomes overcrowded, we use up our area’s natural resources or we want to find a better life free from the crime and strife that may have taken over our homes and some or many of us decide, or are forced, to move.
Throughout most of human history, there have been battles and wars fought over land, resources and even ideology. For instance, some group might take over some other territory to gain access to more food, resources or riches. Then, those subjugated or driven off might try to retake their land or to take over some other group’s land. Each new conflict led to more conflicts.
If we could go someplace where we did not compete with, displace or replace others, then our migration did not cause much of a problem. Today, our population has grown so large that it makes our migration much more difficult to do without causing conflict.
Today, many countries have fixed borders, so we often find that one subgroup within a country will try to expel or eliminate another subgroup to gain a stronger hold on their country, its land and its other resources. With the world’s growing problem with human overpopulation and diminishing resources, group migrations can only get more difficult, and cause more conflicts and wars.
As the difficulties associated with migrations have grown, we have had to turn to immigration. Instead of an entire group migrating to a new location, individuals or families immigrate to new countries. With the discovery of the new world this really accelerated. Suddenly, there were new places with lots of new land, resources and the promise of a better life. These new countries, especially the United States, wanted to increase their populations and encouraged immigration.
Immigrants often brought new skills, energy, optimism and hope, and a desire to create a better life for themselves, their families and their new countries. Many in these new countries also found it rewarding to be exposed to different ideas, customs and traditions. In addition, the countries from which immigrants came from often benefited by having a reduction in their population, which relieved overcrowding and reduced the stress on their limited resources.
Although immigrations have often been beneficial to the immigrants, their families, their new countries, and even their old countries, there have been times, more so recently, when this has not been the case. Immigrants do not always assimilate well in their new country. When immigrants do not learn the language or simply remain in neighborhoods with others like themselves, they become isolated from the larger community, which can be detrimental to them, the community and the country. Of course, we all have the right to live our lives the way we want and to practice our own customs and traditions, but isolation can weaken a community’s social fabric.
Immigration can also cause a few other problems for an immigrant’s new country. One of the reasons for immigrating is that the new country offers better economic opportunities. Up to a point, immigrants can add valuable human resources to the economy, but, as immigration continues, the country will become overpopulated, natural resources will be spread thin, and more individuals will sink into poverty. In addition, many immigrants send money back to their families in their home countries, which can be a great economic boost there, but can drain a lot of money out of an immigrant’s new country.
The countries from which immigrants come from can also suffer. Many countries that have economic problems have limited opportunities for individuals to learn a vocation or to earn a good living. The individuals that are most often affected are the best and the brightest, and the ones who have the most drive to succeed. These are the individuals most likely to decide that they need to immigrate to a new country to make a better life for themselves and their families.
With the continued loss of their most talented individuals, a country’s economic health weakens even further and its prospects for a brighter future can be put in jeopardy, which can result in even more individuals wanting to leave. In addition, if it is easy for individuals to leave their country and to find a better life someplace else, then they will put fewer demands on their government to fix their home country’s economic problems.
Many individuals also live in countries where they suffer from things such as human rights violations, civil war, ethnic cleansing and a lack of freedoms. Some of the individuals who are the most eager for change and in opposition to the government that is causing these problems may be the same individuals who are most likely to leave or to be forced out. The governments of these countries can benefit from having these dissidents leave, since the reduction in opposition means the country’s leaders would be able to stay in power longer. The problem is that the rest of the country’s citizens will continue to suffer.
The United States and many other countries have created laws and set up procedures so that individuals can legally immigrate to their countries. A country’s immigration procedures should give eligible individuals an equitable opportunity to try to immigrate and to ensure that too many individuals do not flood into the country. Unfortunately, some individuals do not want to go through the trouble of following these immigration procedures. For the most part these individuals are impatient or know that they will be ineligible due to some circumstance such as having a criminal record or being a terrorist. Therefore, they will try to enter the country illegally.
Of course, breaking a country’s laws is not a very good way of trying to start a new life there. In addition, since illegal immigrants must stay under the government’s radar or risk being deported, they most likely will need to commit additional illegal acts. For instance, to make money, these illegal immigrants may need to work illegally off the books or under a false identity or engage in some sort of criminal activity. Illegal immigrants must also try to avoid contact with the authorities, since they have no legal standing and fear being deported. This leaves them open to being exploited, blackmailed and robbed, and to be unwilling to report or to be a witness to criminal activity.
No one knows how many illegal immigrants there are in the United States, but most estimates put the number at around 12 million. This means that about 4 percent of the individuals living here are criminals that are helping to support a vast array of criminal activities like smuggling, falsifying documents and evading taxes. In addition, illegal immigrants can be easily exploited by businesses to work for low wages, which takes away jobs and reduces the wages of citizens and legal immigrants.
Those applying for legal immigration can also be affected by illegal immigration. First off, countries must limit the number of immigrants to some manageable number, since they simply cannot absorb an unlimited number of immigrants. If they do not limit the illegal immigrants, then they may need to put more limits on legal immigrants. This would mean that more of the individuals who do or would follow the immigration procedures would not be allowed in and some of those individuals might resort to illegal immigration. This could easily lead to a situation that is completely out of control. I believe that this is the situation that we currently have here in the United States.
In order to control our economic and population growth and to keep our citizens safe and secure, we need to have control over who immigrates to our country. There are two sets of changes that are needed. The first set of changes would help to get our current illegal immigration problem under control. The second set of changes would help to stabilize immigration worldwide.
One step would be to ensure that individuals can apply to immigrate from their current home country, so they would know before trying to immigrate whether they can or not. We would allow them to apply in their home country at our embassy or one of our consulates. Where needed, we would also allow them to apply at another country's embassy or consulate, or at other places.
In some cases, individuals might be in danger if they stayed in their home country, so we also want to allow them to apply in other countries, or even to come to the United States while their application is being reviewed. Therefore, we should also allow them to apply at our embassy or one of our consulates in another country, or even at one of our legal entry points. However, if someone applies at one of our legal entry points, then we would reserve the right either to let them in or to require them to wait somewhere else while their application is being processed.
If an immigration application is approved, then those individuals could then come through any legal entry point. That might be a land border crossing, a harbor or an airport. They would just need to present the appropriate documentation showing their legal immigration status.
However, for this to work we need to ensure that immigration applications can be processed quickly. That means having sufficient personnel in our immigration courts. If applications are not processed quickly, those individuals wanting to immigrate may become impatient and then try to immigrate illegally.
Another step would be to make it clear that entering the United States via an illegal crossing point would result in severe consequences. For instance, entering illegally would result in immediate deportation, and automatic denial of any immigration request for some period or even permanently. We want to make it clear that someone must come in via a legal entry point.
Some individuals may also come into the country via a legal entry point as a tourist, but then fail to leave. Even though they entered legally, they still became illegal immigrants when they failed to leave on time. Therefore, the same consequences should apply unless they can give a valid reason for staying too long.
For those individuals who had previously immigrated here illegally, we want to give them an opportunity to turn themselves in. If they turn themselves in, then we would give them a chance to make themselves legal immigrants. If they do not turn themselves in by some specified date, then they would be subject to being deported and barred from immigrating.
To make it harder for someone to sneak in illegally, we need to control our borders. Some individuals and groups say that we should simply install fences and build walls along our borders. However, simply installing a fence or building a wall would not stop most individuals or groups from crossing.
All that fences and walls do is to slow individuals and groups down long enough so that we can hopefully catch them, but we would need more than just a fence or wall to do that. The only thing these types of barriers do is to stop someone from just simply walking across the border. Individuals and groups could still bring the right tools so that they could breach the fence or wall by going over, under or through it.
We just need to look at history to see that fences and walls do not work by themselves. Take the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall in Great Britain, or any fort or castile. In each of these cases, lots of soldiers manned them throughout their entire length, and they deployed various means to prevent individuals from climbing over them, digging under them or blasting their way through them. Without the soldiers and other deterrents, these walls would have been basically worthless. Even with the soldiers and other deterrents, these walls were still often breached.
At legal crossing points, or areas where a lot of individuals live or come to on the other side of the border or could easily get to the border, a fence or wall is helpful to prevent a lot of them from just overwhelming the border crossing point. A fence or wall here is helpful in slowing them down long enough so that border guards along the fence or wall have a better chance of stopping or apprehending them.
In more remote areas, just having a fence or wall might only slow someone down for a minute or so but would prevent animals from migrating. If you add the needed opening to allow animals to cross, then you would not even slow down the individuals and groups.
Instead, you want to have some combination of cameras, sensors and guards. In fact, without guards right there or close enough to get to the border quickly, the cameras and sensors are not much help except in documenting that the border had been breached. In some places where border guards could not get to the border quickly enough, drones might be useful to keep track of those who illegally crossed the border until they could be apprehended.
Given our long borders, it would likely be prohibitively expensive to deploy cameras, sensors, guards or whatever everywhere along all the borders. That means there may be places that are more remote and less accessible where some individuals and groups may still be able to cross. In addition, even with lots of cameras, sensors, guards and other things, some may still find a way to cross. Therefore, other means will still need to be used to catch them after they have crossed.
When someone comes into this country, they should enter at a valid crossing point and have valid documentation as to their identity. Citizens should be required to have a passport or some verifiable state identification. Visitors should be required to have a passport and have their picture and fingerprints taken and entered in a database, which would be used to track visitors until they leave or immigrants until they get other valid United States identification. Individuals without valid identification, or who have overstayed their visit would be subject to arrest and to deportation.
Except for criminals and terrorists, most illegal immigrants still need to work to survive. Therefore, one of the best deterrents to illegal immigration is to remove the financial incentives. All companies should be required to validate the identity of all employees. Anyone who cannot prove who they are should be reported to the appropriate authorities so that the person can clear up the problem or, if needed, be deported.
To aid individuals in proving who they are, they should have some form of valid documentation like a passport or other document that is tightly controlled. It would also be good to get everyone photographed and fingerprinted to help in cases of lost documentation or identify theft.
A national database should be set up so that it can be queried to validate someone’s identity. Only authorized businesses and government agencies should make inquiries, which would be logged. The individual whose identity was being checked would enter the requested data and the person verifying the identity could see the results, which should also include a photo of the individual.
Another class of workers would include day laborers. These individuals are usually hired and paid for a single day’s work at a time. These laborers may be hired by businesses or individuals who need temporary or short-term help. However, it would be difficult, or at least inconvenient, for them to verify the identity of each person that they hire for the day. Therefore, we should require day laborers to register with the government, who would validate their identities and issue them day laborer identification. Businesses and individuals who hire them would just need to verify that they have valid day laborer identification. They would use the information on this identification when they fill out the wage and earnings paperwork for the day laborer.
In the future, immigration between any two countries should almost be as easy and simple as it would be to move from one place to another within a country. Of course, a lot of changes must take place before that will be possible. It will require both political and economic changes within every country of the world, and an unprecedented level of cooperation between all levels of government both within and between countries.
The first change will need to be political. Many countries do not protect the basic rights of their citizens and businesses. For us to be comfortable moving to a new home, we should be confident that our basic human and financial rights will be protected. The best way to do this is to adopt international laws that spell out the basic legal rights and obligations for citizens and visitors of all countries. There should also be an international court of appeals that will help to ensure that each country’s justice system is open and fair.
Another change must be economic. Most of us want to live someplace where we can earn a good living and live a comfortable life. With a wide gulf between the wealthier and poorer countries of the world, immigration is mostly one way. To equalize immigration, we must equalize economic conditions. Part of the answer will come from standardizing business and economic laws so that all countries are on a more even playing field. The best way to do this would be to adopt international laws that govern taxes, subsidies, labor, safety, quality, pollution control, trade, and all other aspects of business. We also need to at least stabilize monetary exchange rates or even create one standard international monetary system.
To help ensure the economic health of any given region, we must ensure that it is not overpopulated, so that there would not be a strain on the local resources. This means that there must be a limit on the local population. When a region’s population is well below their limit, we would be free to move there. When the population is near or over the limit, then restrictions must be put on moving there.
Of course, if we were really needed someplace, then the restrictions should not prevent us from moving there. If we could not find work while living in an area that is overpopulated, then we would be provided with incentives to move to another location that was still well below their population limit and where we could more easily find employment. For more information, see the section on overpopulation.
Transportation -
Improving our Transportation system to make getting places easier and cheaper.
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