What are the effects of migration

In our days migration is becoming uncontrolled problem which has unpleasant
consequences, especially to the economy and social structure of the
country. In spite of the fact that countries are doing their best to solve
the problem of migration, but it still remains one of the key problem to
which there is no easy solution. Migration slows down the economy and
causes terrible effects such as increased pollution and unemployment.

What is migration? "Migration is the movement of people, especially of
whole groups, from one place, region, or country to another, particularly
with the intention of making permanent settlement in a new location"
(Encarta encyclopedia / 2004). And there are a number of reasons why people
migrate. The main reasons causing migration is the followings: people
living in the countries regard large cities as a more desirable place to
live (especially in undeveloped and developing countries), the supply of
social services such as education and health service are not the same
everywhere, low income in rural locations, poverty and others. These
reasons would "push"("push factor") people from rural or poor countries to
moredevelopedregionsorcountries.

Thereisalso"pull
factor"(opportunities for education, marriage or job opportunities) which
attracts labour towards large cities or countries. An instancefor
"pull"ing workforce can be Japan, where local people do not want to work
for low salaries (In Japan low wage may be considerably higher for people
migrated from less developed counties) or in very dangerous jobs. That is
why such countries prefer to hire employees from other countries rather
than local labour.
As it was stated above, a lot of people move to a particular area with
various reasons.

And this is as you know migration which has terrible
consequences. First of all, it affects on the increase of pollution in
small towns. The accumulation of people in one place makes them (towns) to
expand; on the other hand these small towns become large cities. And thus,
the pollution increases since researches have shown that if in one area the
population becomes more than fifty thousand people this place is considered
to be highly polluted. An example for this can be any developing country
where population and productivity have rapid increase.Second of all, people who migrate from rural places to large cities in
order to get a job with higher earnings can cause unemployment.

The
population rises in urban regions. "The rapidly expanding urban areas are
characterized by many writers as "parasitic" development in so far as they
absorb a large volume of resources, financial, physical and human but make
only a limited contribution to the development effort (their "generative"
capacity)" (Colman D., Nixon F. / 1986). And certainly the jobs for
everyone are not enough. According to Lewis (1954) if there is differential
in salary between the rural and urban areas the migration will continue
until this gap disappears (Colman D.

, Nixon F. / 1986). Typical evidence
for the case of unemployment can be the cities of India (Bombay, Calcutta,
Madras and etc.) to where people moved from the rural areas and Pakistan in
hope of getting a job with higher salary but only increased poverty and
unemployment rate in these cities.
Thirdly, not only developed, but developing countries can suffer from
migration.

All the developing countries might experience negative impacts,
because of "brain drain" - the loss of trained and educated people. Almost
in all less developed countries the government pays very little amount of
money for educated individuals. Consequently, these people will lose
interest to their job and try to migrate to those countries where there are
good conditions in jobs and excellent income. And majority of them are
doing so.

For example, according to the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) presently in the United States there are more African
engineers and scientists than in Africa itself. There is an interesting
fact that "brain drain" has cost Zambia approximately nine billion dollars
in potential growth. Besides, in India it is estimated that about one
hundred thousand qualified technology employees are going to migrate to the
other countries in the nearest future years. (Center for Strategic &
International Studies / 2002).
Finally, there is a negative effect of migration on labour supply.

Often
uncontrolled migration leads to an excess of labour supply in the cities
which causes poverty and forces people to do an informal kind of work
activities (low-productivity activities) which is really asortof
undesirable type of labour. For instance, selling things in the streets,
children watching cars and asking for money from their owners when they
come back and others. Such things occur almost in every country even
sometimes in the developed ones. Besides there is a big possibility of
labour scarcity in the areas where migrants came from which may also
harmfully affect on agriculture.
To conclude from all above, one thing can be derived: there is more loss
than profit when people migrate.

Certainly some people may not be agree
with this statement saying that migrants have also positive effects on the
countries' economy and social structure. But usually, in my opinion,
migration has negative impact on the countries in view of the fact that it
causes unemployment, pollution, redundancy in a particular area and lack of
labour supply in another area, brain drain and etc. And thus, to avoid
these consequences the government should follow some policies such as
motivating people to stay in their place by increasing wages (especially
for educated and well qualified workforce), improving the supply of social
services (particularly in the field of education and health) in the rural
areas since people feel that these services are better in the city areas,
giving extra financial assistance to agriculture to stimulate interest for
work in farmers and others. I propose, that the problem of migration could
be reduced by implementing such useful and effective policies.

Bibliography:
1. Begg D., (2003), Economics, 17th edition, New York, McGraw-Hill
Education Limited, pp 511-12.
2. Colman D.

and Nixson F., (1986), Economics of Change in Less Developed
Countries, 2nd edition, London, Philip Allan Publishers Limited, pp 118-19.
3. Gillis M.

, Perkins D., Roemer M., Snodgrass D., (1996), Economics of
development, 4th edition, New York, W. W.

Norton ; Company Inc.
4. Lynch T., (2002), Study Listening, Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press.

5. Center for Strategic ; International Studies, (2002), Economic Effects
of Migration, Internet, Available from:
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21/04/2004
6. MSN Encarta encyclopedia, (2004), Migration, Internet, Available from:
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