Immigrants: Why Would Any Country Want Them?

On April 16, 2013 the United States Senate was introduced to a new immigration reform bill, called The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. The reform bill aims to increase border security, streamline legal immigration, and address the issue of undocumented immigrants already settled in the country. In regards to the latter, the proposed bill would provide a conditional path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, thus granting them a legal status. Moreover, the bill advances talent-based immigration through granting more visa opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs and students with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees. Given the essence of the proposed reform, the bill has already created a massive debate in the U.S., and is considered to be quite contentious.

One of the central points of the debate relates to facilitating the inflow of immigrants. In other words, one might ask ‘Why do we need any immigrants when there are plenty of locals?’ and ‘What are the benefits of immigrants for a country?’

In response to such questions, Fiona Citkin, author of a recent article in the Huffington Post Business, argues that this reform is all about supporting the U.S. sustainability in a competitive global economy, and that leveraging the strengths of immigrants is one of the means to do so. Specifically, Dr. Citkin highlights immigrants’ creativity.

 

Creative immigrants

Indeed, the topic of creativity and its relation to living abroad is much spoken about and even academically documented. Several of my previous blog topics refer to research, which shows that expatriates, globally mobile people, bicultural individuals, and ‘third culture kids’, are all likely to share a more creative mindset thanks to their ability to see situations in several different ways. In the same manner, immigrants bring their cultural perspective to the new cultural environment they relocate to, which allows them to see things in a different light, and possibly provide ‘out of box’ solutions. Needles to argue that in times of a globalized business world every multinational organization can only benefit from employees with different cultural perspectives and knowledge of some other countries’ social and cultural environments. As such, Citkin makes a point that bringing in talented foreigners will only help the U.S. to prosper in the global economy. Thus, ‘Diversify!’ – is her message – or, one may say ‘Diversify further!’

 

Global mobility: A natural way for human prosperity?

Another article vouching FOR migration posits that migration of human populations has always been a natural way of their being. And while in the very beginning human tribes moved in search of resources such as food and land, not so much has actually changed until today. In the realities of the 21^st century, as the author argues, the globalized workforce is required to move across borders to make a better life, thereby fostering prosperity of the entire planet.

 

A debatable point of view?

Certainly, in addition to the many benefits of migration the reality struggles with many less positive sides related to the same processes of human mobility. However, as noted by the author of the mentioned article, migration is a two-way street, where every country has its gains and losses, as well as every change related to human mobility is not without risks.

As such, there are both pros and cons for fostering immigration in a country, which results in a healthy (and necessary) debate on such an important topic.