Lucas - Essay on Immigration

Immigration


Immigration and globalization are today the two hot topics concerning the futures of States. Strangely enough, these two concepts work toward different directions. When we think of globalizations patterns of economic or social-cultural interactions we usually conceive a harmonic conviviality between different – or even antagonists – worldviews. In this “optimistic” account, ethnic discrepancies turn into global benefits for everyone as for example increasing profits worldwide, deepening our cultural understanding or preventing military conflicts in the borders. However, hardly can anyone state the same regarding immigration. Instead of praising pluralism and searching for new ways for doing politics, the immigration debate in the western countries nowadays brings up the oldest feature of human society: the fear of the stranger.

The end of Cold War has let out an enormous amount of local tensions worldwide. One example was the rise of new capitalist economies in Europe during the 90’s after the breakdown of the Soviet system. At first they were praised as welcome brothers in Europe Union. It has taken just a couple of years for xenophobic movements to start their campaigns against the East European countries. Although episodes of intolerance are relatively common in this context, the case against South-North migration is a more powerful one because it goes beyond European case, affecting all the developed countries in the world. Second, it seems to be the pattern of cultural struggle in the next decades, literally a “clash of civilizations”. Old colonies (in the European context) and poor neighbors (in the US) become the origin of massive immigration fluxes responsible for supplying the low-rated jobs in rich countries. Some demographers, for example, predict that in 2050 protestant whites will not be the majority of U.S. population. Maybe even English will have lost its hegemony as the only official language…

For the cultural and economic establishment of developed countries it sounds catastrophic. The increasing rates of unemployment and violence are commonly used as argument for those who look forward to enclosing the economy and strengthening the legislation against illegal immigrants. But a second look can provide us with a better picture of the circumstances. Beginning with the question if immigrants are the cause of unemployment - which is a kind of absurd when we realize that immigrants and natives do not compete with each other for the same jobs (immigrants take in general unqualified jobs and lower wages) - in the long run demographic rates compel us to be skeptical about anti-immigration laws. The decline of native population is a pattern in all industrial societies. It means that in the future the current lack of unqualified employers may yoke the lack of qualified employers in the same economies. It is not an absurd when we consider the fact that the dynamism of U.S. culture, along with the history of Western Europe, is one of the fruits of the nineteenth century’s fluxes of immigration. At first, a low-rated job might attract a poor family from a distant country, looking for a new life. But in two or three generations, considering the system of educational opportunities in developed countries, their children and grandchildren might become the next generation of brilliant scientists, professors and politicians. Just look at the Syllicon Valley, the Ivy League or the White House in the U.S. How many foreigner surnames will we find out? The American situation can be read as the paradigmatic situation for Europe and all others countries which intend to establish themselves as the new world potencies.