Reassessment of International Instruments in the Field of Migration

Andrei Codrescu author of Notes of an Alien Son: Immigration Paradoxes, informs us of what and how immigrants who come to America feel about moving away. The move across land of ocean can feel overwhelming, and after reading Codrescu essay I can understand why some immigrants do move to America. Change must happen with countries that don’t hold respect for their own people. You hear over and over again in the media that sadly owns America and the world about how thousands upon thousands of immigrants from all over the world are making their way to the edge of America.

Migration policies are often designed with the sole objective of influencing international migration by either restricting or encouraging circular migration, immigration or emigration(Ripsman & Paul, 2010). Open border policies have contributed to the uncontrolled to the flow of illegal immigrants into countries and in turn generating challenges to the host countries. The fundamental basis for arguments has been whether open immigration policy or restricted immigration policy

Globally, the United States has been known as "a nation of immigrants" almost from its inception. Beginning in the 1600s with English Puritans and continuing today, America is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration was the major source of U.S. population growth. Looking over our 200+ years we find that to clearly be true, with approximately 1 million immigrants coming to America during the 17th and 18th century. Almost 3 million arrived during the 1860s, and another 3 million in the 1870s. In the next four decades, the number of immigrants rose to over 25 million people, most from various European nations, most arriving in New York or one of the Eastern seaports (Damon, 1981). Despite the politicization, as of 2006, the United States actually was the number one country globally to accept legal immigrants into the country, with a current immigrant population of almost 40 million (Terrazas and Batalova, 2009). In fact, the peak of immigration was 1907, when over 1.2 million Europeans entered the country beginning a push towards legislation limiting immigration in the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 and the 1921 Congressional Quota Act. These immigrants came for two sociological reasons: the push factor (wars, famine, persecution and overpopulation) and the pull factors (jobs and the promise of freedom). Most came by ship, and a passage often cost the equivalent of an entire life's savings causing many

Migration is not a new phenomenon throughout the history of human, but the issue of migration has become more of a problem since the emerging of modern states. The distinction between immigrants and local citizens has become official with the emergence of nation-state authority and the ideas of sovereignty, citizenship and nationality. From the 19th century, the control of passport and visa has made the borders between immigrants and citizens even clearer and more identified. Today, as there are more restrictions on entering a country, states have to deal with regulating policies for immigration to control the influx of people

To begin it is helpful to understand that the word “migrant” is a rather contested concept, one that changes over time, and varies depending on the criteria used to assign it.(Raghuram & Erel, 2014, p.133)

For the last year, people from the various regions of the globe have been fleeing their home countries and migrating toward several nations across Europe. What pushes them away and what draws them to their final destinations? Ascertaining a single motivation of immigration remains too complex to determine because a variety of factors and goals have lead to this grand movement. Several issues arise from increased numbers of immigrants who may or may not be finding what they seek.

The global mobility of human resources between countries is a key driving force of the currently ongoing economic and regional development all over the world. It is indisputable that the immigration of international labour force would exert many positive and important impacts on the economic, cultural and social structure of both migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries. Actually, the trend of temporary and permanent immigrants increasing in some western countries began to gain momentum in recent years. Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD 2004) reports indicated that there were more than 1 million new immigrants in the United States in 2001 and 2002, increased by 25% from 2000; in some European countries

Over the last decade, the number of immigrants has increased tremendously growing from 331,000 to a whopping 409,000. An increase of about 78,000 people ( Britannica). Despite media coverage on the issue many people are blind to the true nature of the situation . Therefore it is important to understand the extent to which immigration affects us all.

From the micro-level to the macro-level globalization has transformed the world into a smaller place with constant interactions occurring at every moment between nations, institutions, groups, and individuals. And with this prevalent interconnectivity, migration between the Global North and the Global South has been a controversial consequence of this global integration (Hinojosa, 2015). For this reason one cannot ignore the importance and impact of migrant populations in the country they settle in, and in the countries of origin.

Generally, the United States has been a nation of settlers, with gatherings of individuals coming to live in and work in the nation from everywhere throughout the world. Many nations' natives have additionally been banned from entering the United States by different laws over the span of history. Settler bunches have confronted and keep on battling bigotry and negative treatment resulting to entering the United States. Today, migration to the United States has changed radically from the main portion of the twentieth century. Since a low point in the 1940s, the movement rate has risen drastically. The number of inhabitants in foreigners in the United States has quadrupled since 1970 and multiplied in number since 1990. Moreover, today's migrants vary in ethnicity, aptitudes, and instruction. Most foreigners in the mid-1900s emigrated from Europe, and were generally Caucasian. In 2011, most workers entered the United States from Latin America and all over. Movement keeps on being a striking arrangement issue in light of the fact that there keeps on being no accord on whether workers have a positive or negative effect on United States

Immigration has been one of the hottest topics in the United States for a long time. Immigration is described as the movement of non – native peoples in order to settle there and make a new life. The idea of immigration has been around for thousand of years, even the cavemen “immigrated” to follow their food source. Fast-forward a few thousand years and this idea is still extremely prevalent today. Many people move from one country in order to better their lives and follow a new food source, so to speak.

Nowadays migration is getting to be one of the dominant characteristics of the modern world since at the present moment that movement of people and migration of citizens from one country to another become a norm. Not surprisingly that such unparallel and extremely high level of migration results in substantial demographic, ethnical and socio-cultural changes in many countries of the world.

Although Immigration is a complex topic with many different factors, the most common reason for immigration is poverty and the hopes of building a new future elsewhere. In the past migration was largely caused by the fore-mentioned issue of poverty, social strife, war, or other political conflicts. As of today these things are still issues and in some cases political asylum does play part in immigration decisions. Globalization is defined as the tendency for business, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world. Globalization is also a major factor in the decisions made before immigration, often times families and friends will eventually re-unite in one region in order to remain together. Living in a more technical world with an advanced society has brought us to the point we are at today, a nearly global community with more in common than in any century before. With the beginning of modern technology in the 1900’s came a more closely knit world, with more communication than what was seen in the past.

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, it is imperative to understand how societies interact and the issues they are facing. I have been interested in languages, cultures, and international affairs for many years which is why I have decided to major in Global Studies. To broaden my global perspective, I am currently participating on St. Lawrence University's Global Francophone Cultures program where I am studying abroad in Quebec, Canada; Rouen, France, and Dakar, Senegal. In addition to learning the French language, the main area of focus for this year's program is immigration. One of the courses I am taking is called, “The Age of Migration: Labor Mobility in the EU.” In this course we have read various articles on immigration, researched countries immigration policies, and are studying the economics of immigration. We

Impelled migration is also termed as imposed or reluctant migration. At times the living conditions in a particular country are not very favorable due to religious persecution, political issues or warfare. In such a situation, people are not forced to leave the nation, but they make decision to leave the country, though reluctantly, which is called reluctant migration.