Opposition to immigration
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The more unskilled the immigrant, the more likely the immigrant will be a fiscal burden."--George Borjas |
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Opposition to immigration is present in most nation-states with immigration, and has become a significant political issue in many countries. Immigration in the modern sense refers to movement of people from one nation-state to another, where they are not citizens.
The four main anti-immigration themes are: psychological xenophobia (dislike and fear of foreigners), economic costs (especially job competition and the expenses of schools and social services), negative environmental impact such as accelerated population growth, and the distortion of the national identity. Opposition to immigration can be directed at the immigrants themselves or their culture, language and religion; opponents often focus on employers of the immigrants.
In countries where the majority of the population is of immigrant descent, such as the United States, opposition to immigration often takes the form of nativism (targeted only at 'first-generation' immigrants).
Welfare costs
Opponents of immigration often state that immigrants have a net negative effect on public coffers mainly due to the provisioning of medical care and welfare.
Various factors influence the impact of immigrants to a nation's public coffers and their use of welfare. While immigrants can improve a state's welfare system by for example counteracting trends of aging populations their net economic impact might also be negative. High-skilled immigrants have better labor market prospects than those admitted based on kinship ties or for humanitarian reasons. It also depends on the tenures, wages and ages of the immigrants and the country's integration system.
See also
- Human capital flight
- Economic migrant
- Economic growth#Criticism
- Emigration
- Environmental migrant
- Environmental racism
- Immigration policy
- Immigration reduction in the United States
- Immigration reform
- International Organization for Migration
- Immigration and crime
- People smuggling
- Political asylum
- Right of foreigners to vote
- Refugee
- Rivers of Blood speech
- Economic results of migration
