Illegal Migrants, Essay Example

Introduction

There has been an increasing and ongoing public debate regarding illegal migrants in all over the world especially in Europe and United States. To explore this topic further in detail, a detailed research has been made in order to understand the definition, its implications and what are it consequences. This research papers is mostly based on the literature from the relevant journals, books and case studies. I’ve tried to identify the issues related to the topic i.e. illegal migration by highlighting the factors which influence the illegal migration along with a detailed discussion has been made on the organized crimes which are associated with the illegal migration like smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, slavery and etc. Furthermore, to explain the topic in detail, cost associated with the illegal migration has also been discussed from both, the migrant and recipient countries point of view. To explain the topic in detail, I’ve organized this paper into the four major sections. The first section will explain the primary concept of illegal migration its definition and understanding according to the United Nations and other concerned institutes. The section will explain and explore the factors and reasons which influences the illegal migration across borders. Related journals and books have been consulted to discuss the factors and reasons in detail and what impact these factors have on both, the transit and the destination country. The section three will be highlighting the organized crimes associated with the illegal migration across the countries.

Relevant journals and the study material have been consulted to explain the crimes involved in the illegal migration. Further we will discuss the cost associated with the illegal crime and some statistics from the United Kingdom (part of the European Union) will be mentioned to identify the seriousness and severity of the issue. Final part of this paper will be based on the conclusion and recommendation about the issue. What is the illegal migration?  Before we explore and explain the topic in detail, it is important to understand the terms “illegal entry” and “illegal migration”

Definitions

United National Institute of Training and Research (UNITAR) has defined the illegal entry as, “The ‘Illegal entry’ shall mean crossing borders without complying with the necessary requirements for legal entry into the receiving State.” Whereas according to IOM, the illegal migration refers to the movements of population or humans that take place outsides the regulatory customs and procedures of the sending, transiting or receiving countries. It is important to mention here that there is no any prescribed or globally recognized definition of the illegal migration. Any entry to any country, with the intention to stay or work can be considered as illegal if the migrant does not have the required documentation or authorization, necessary for the immigration rules and policies of the country like valid visa, staying or working permit issued by the government of the relevant country. Whereas, from the sending country’s perspective, the person crossing an international and administrative border does not have the required passport for travelling or any other relevant documents which are required for leaving the country. There is a tendency to restrict the use of term “illegal migration” to cases of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.

According to the United States Immigration Services, the illegal immigration known as the crossing of an international border in a manner which clearly violates the immigration law of the destination country and an illegal immigrant is considered as a foreigner has illegally crossed an international political border, or a foreigner who has entered into a country legally but then overstays his/her visa.”

In Europe, this issue has gained public importance in summer 2008 when daily reports on media and news channels started highlighting the issue of unauthorized and illegal migrants started reaching Mediterranean shores and many of them have lost their lives in migration process. Both, the United States and Europe has faced huge public and political pressure due to the increasing rate of illegal migrants into the countries and were largely considered as an increasing problem. Also, it was believed in host countries that the increasing numbers of illegal and unauthorized migrants has put negative impact on their communities due to various reasons like, not following the rule of law, damage to the labor marker, increase poverty by taking away the jobs from the native and local national workers and by increasing the numbers of poor people in the country which obviously damages the national statistics in terms of GDP and growth rate. Furthermore, the illegal immigrants have also increased the pressure on the public services like health, transportation, education, security and laws and order. There are some positive impacts of illegal migration as well like contribution to the growth and economy of the destination country through tax and foreign investment.

It is pertinent to mention here that various public and political surveys were conducted in European Countries and the majority of the people have shown their serious and deep concerns over increasing numbers of the illegal migrants, however in last two to three years, the population of the illegal immigrants in UK, Germany, France and other European countries has decreased. According to German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS) survey in 2010, the majority of the British, Spanish and American population has considered the growing numbers of illegal migrants as a huge problem which is also been recognized as the economic downfall of these countries over the last decade. The 33% British survey responders claimed that the illegal migrants have increased the crime rate in UK and also are a threat to the native security whereas, the 46 percent in Germany and 56 percent in Italy shared the same concerns over the illegal migrants.

The European Commission, Standard barometer  (The European Union’s Public Opinion) surveyed in 2009 and ranked illegal immigration as the one of the top three issues and asked to form EU-Level policies and rules to tackle this growing issue. There has been a range of polices in America to deal with the illegal migrant issue, on one side the flexible immigration polices has been made in order to control the illegal migrants and encouraging them to enter legally. On the other hand, there are strict rules and policies in order to control the borders by imposing strict penalties for rule violation including deportation and etc. In Europe, however the rules regarding border controls are unique as the member states have removed the international borders (Iceland, Switzerland and Norway) and the resulting area for the free movement is known as the Schengen Area known as the primary focused area for EU border officials in terms of illegal migrant. The Schengen Area has the 42,672 kilometers (26,515 miles) of sea borders and 8,826 kilometer (5,484 miles) of the external land borders.

According to the Frontex (European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders) has transformed the Member State cooperation in Schengen Area. The primary objectives of the Frontex are data collection and reporting illegal migrants in European Union and perform risk analysis by the coordination of the Member States. Furthermore, it is also responsible for the joint enforcement and return operation in European Union. After the formation of Frontex, that data and resources pooling has increased tremendously due to the joint resource planning and funding by the European Union and Schengen States. The Budget and Finance report of Frontex in 2010 described that in the past few years, the Frontex has grown significantly due to its success which can be determined the increased budget i.e. 88 million Euros in 2010, was 6.3 million Euros in 2005 when Frontex was started.

How does the illegal migration take place?

It is very hard to explain the reasons which enforce the illegal migration in any country or continent. The causes and factors which influence the illegal migration are hard to determine as commonly said, the combination of different factors and aspects influence the illegal migration and gives rise to this phenomenon. Mainly speaking, there are two main factors and reasons for illegal migration i.e. “push factors” and “pull factors”. The push factors basically include the origin, economic, political, the professional and security aspects which influence the illegal migration from one country to another or from one continent to other. Whereas the “pull factors” are mostly concerned with the needs, demands of the immigrant in destination countries in order to address a fertility smallness replacement level and the ageing population and also to ensure the demand of skill labor market. The increasing trend of globalization and its emergence has caused so many different threats to the global environment and the illegal migration is one of the growing threats for the growing globalization trend. This advance environment has not only highlighted and accentuates the traditional caused of illegal migration but also boost the other factors which are responsible for the illegal migration.

The political instability is known as one of the most important push factors for illegal migration as the Looking first to the “push causes,” consider the political aspect as the dictatorial or undemocratic regimes and government are considered as the primary source and reason for the illegal migration. In such scenario, these governments sometimes makes and implements the policies against the large part of their own population which is against the regime, resulting in the form of crisis, conflicts and riots which later on lead towards the mass genocide or ethnic cleansing in those countries. Such incidents influence the mass illegal migration from those countries to others.  For example, crisis in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Rwanda are the clear examples of mass illegal migration which was mostly with the intentions to save their lives and families.  The final project report of Clandestino by Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in 2009, the mass Cuban’s movement of approximately 30,000 people to the United States in 1994 for the purpose of seeking democratic form of government is another example of the political instability and illegal migration.  Furthermore, in the case of political instability and serious security concerns to the population, a large portion will try to move to the neighbouring countries illegally and for such purpose, many governments and countries in world have re-formed their immigration policies and rules for any kind of stay in the destined country. The United Nations Refugees Agency recorded, more than 42 million people are outside the country of their nationality due to the persecution on account of race, religion, political opinion, and civil war.

It is possible that sometimes the source or transit country for illegal immigration may become the destination country due to the strict border control by the destination countries or through the new immigration policies and rules. The enforcement of the strict immigration policies and they strict border surveillance can be the reason for such situations.  For example, in the last decade, Morocco was considered as a transit country for the illegal immigrants to the European Union through Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and the two occupied cities Ceuta and Melilla, both cities have shown an incredible increase in illegal immigrants, mostly consists of the natives from the West and East African countries with a large number of undocumented immigrants from countries of the Niger Delta which were facing political instability and crisis.

Another “push factor” is the selected immigration laws of the destination countries which only just allow the qualified and certified skilled labor to enter into their countries. This policy and practice further leads to decrease the numbers of illegal population and immigrants from their counties as many of these don’t have the required skills or qualification for the legal stay into the country.  Furthermore, some industries like agriculture or building construction business does not requires the high qualifications of specific skills, in such cases, the numbers of illegal immigrants will increase as the employers may hire them on cheap wage rate (more than they get in their native country).  The educational and skill discrimination has been largely criticized by the non-government organizations  as such incidents also encourages the skilled labor and qualified persons to move to the other countries in order to get the higher revenues and better standard of life. As in the European Union, the adoption of a new strict immigration laws has increased the numbers of illegal migrants.

Another “push cause” is that illegal migration is also driven by economic roots found in regional disparities, which is basically a process of globalization. As the rapidly growing technological advancements and globalization is increasing the gap between the poor and rich countries. This factor has a significant effect on the illegal migration as the employers in the developed or rich countries tends to hire cheap labour from the developing or underdeveloped countries but still the wage rate higher than the expected in their native countries.  For example, the workers in South Mediterranean countries are keen to move to the other side of the sea because the employers hire them at such wage rate which is significantly higher than they could make in their own countries. Another ele