Introduction
Immigration has to do with relocating from your country to another country and this often happens with different reasons some migrate for the search of greener pasture while others migrate as a result unforeseen occurrences like natural disaster that left them homeless and jobless so at this point they will left with no other choice than to migrate to another country and start up a new life.
Immigration has a positive economic effect to the country people move into it also have a negative effect to the country they left as well as negative effects to the country the moved in.
Currently Nigerian health system is suffering so much because almost all the competent and efficient health workers has migrated to the Europe where they are paid very well and our valued and at this point both the health system and the economy of my country is facing a serious challenge.
Positive effects of immigration.
ECONOMIC EFFECTS.
There are so many positive effects of immigration to a country economy because the immigrants are there to work hard and bring value to both themselves and to the country economy.
For instance they search for job opportunities in industries healthcare facilities and this help the country to meet up with their labor demand thereby enhancing economic growth.
Some immigrants are entrepreneurs so they own businesses in many countries and as they established those businesses they as well create job opportunities for both immigrants and native born in the country which also helps to build the economy of the country and they help people to learn new skills and become entrepreneurs which reduces dependent on the country financial provisions and also stimulates competition and productivity of the country.
Immigrants helps to advance technology in a country because some immigrants are professional science workers and some are very good in stem field which helps to develop the country and increase knowledge.
Immigrants increases the demand of food and services of a country they also increase the demand of houses and other services of a country helping to generate more revenue for the country.
Immigrants also contribute to government revenue by paying different form of taxes like sales taxes property taxes payroll taxes which are used to fix the countries infrastructure like schools, hospital facilities, roads, transport companies and other social welfare program which benefit both the immigrants and native Born.
Immigrants also contribute to the pension system because as people of the native country grow old while immigrants keeps coming and working in order to return the pension system.
Immigrants sometimes send money to their relatives or invest in their native country thereby enhancing the economic growth of their native country.
Surveyed data from 1994 to 2013 revealed that the net fiscal impact of first-generation immigrants on federal, state, and local taxes combined was less favorable than that of native-born citizens. However, this changed after the age of 60, when Social Security benefits make native-born citizens more expensive than first-generation immigrants. source
A 2019 study that looked at the imposition of 1920s immigrant quotas showed, using U.S. Census data, that restricting immigration did not lead to higher wages for native-born workers. source
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.
There are some negative effects of immigration to both immigrants and native bone of a country, wage effect is one of the native effects of immigration because immigrant accept whatever job they get just to post food on their table most of these job might pay lesser than what they were receiving in their country and those with low skill find themselves working in some industries that are very difficult for them.
The native born that lack skill will be left without work because there are loss of available skilled immigrants who are ready to do the job no matter the pay.
Generally to survive as an immigrant you must the physically fit and at the same time well skilled because in some countries you might be left with no other choice than to do some manual labor to survive.
Challenges facing immigration.
Despite the benefits that comes from immigration there are still challenges that need to be addressed.
For example the competition between the native born and immigrant poses the challenge of labor market displacement and also put more pressure on wages especially for low skill workers and this can result to socio-economic tension within the country.
Despite the fact that immigration reshapes demographic trends but at the same time it poses some demographic changes healthcare cost and it also affect the pension system, also providing support for asylum seekers and refugees poses challenges to the country and this negatively affect the economy of a country.
Immigrant also face the challenge of economic disparities because most times their children are not able to access quality education they are limited to financial services of the country and social networks.
Summary.
Immigration is a global phenomenon that affect both the country sending and receiving country it also has the ability to cause religious conflict and humanitarian crisis but with international coordination all these are challenges that can be addressed but in all we can say that immigration has the ability to boost economic growth of a country.