Migrants: Benefit or Burden?
By Harshul Singh, Senior Content Analyst at The Bridge Project
Are migrants a burden or benefit to the economy in receiving countries?
Since the 1990's immigrants have acquired 3.5% of the world population (WEF 2020), a valued share that has received a lot of attention and has become a dominant feature of social and economic life across many countries. Most of the research conducted on migration is based on conventional ideas and causes like globalization, better life opportunities and demographic imbalances, and stands rudimentary even after decades.
Contrary to that popular belief, migration brings along its own set of challenges. Any individual migrating deals with an array of issues including cultural shock, lack of civil rights and its claims, competition and primarily the lack of employment.
On top of this, several ill-informed perceptions are also prevalent including that they take away the jobs available to locals, they bring diversity — which the west is imperative of, they are hostile towards the host nations and that they are leaving behind a dysfunctional society to further stagnate and cause brain-drain.
While you might agree that this cannot be the case for all nations, that’s what Paul Collier claimed in his internationally acclaimed work ‘How to have a sensible conversation about migration’. Disregarding these aforementioned facts, the real empirical data and statistics have something different to offer which follows as (observed from Eurostat Data 2018):
- Migrants make significant contributions to the labour market in both high- and low-skilled occupations.
- Migrants in host countries contribute more in taxes and other social contributions than they receive as individual benefits in comparison to civilians.
- Migration contributes to enhancing innovation and economic growth.
- In International markets, free migration movement helps address labour market imbalances.
The impact of immigration is specific to time and space. For example, the OECD countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Columbia France etc, their labour market immigration effects critically depend on the skills of migrants, the skills of the existing population and the characteristics of the host economy. In particular, the fiscal effects of immigration usually depend on the nature of the welfare state as well as restrictions on migrants’ access to benefits.
Similarly the effects of immigration vary considerably between the short and long term. For example, immigration may lower wages of domestic workers in the short term but generate investment, which increases the labour demand and wages in the longer term. The fiscal effects of immigration in a given year can differ since migrants’ employment, tax contributions and welfare benefits usage can change over time.
Hence, immigration is likely to create winners and losers, at least in the short term. Therefore, it is imperative to take a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of migration. While there have been efforts to produce one overall and unifying ‘grand migration theory’, this research is almost certainly futile, as there will always be some contradiction from viewpoints of conservative or liberal ideals.
The drivers, processes and impacts of international migration involve a wide range of different economic, social, cultural and political factors that cannot be captured and analysed by any single approach, and hence a multi-dimensional methodology is required to establish an inclusive environment and study the true reality of migration.
What is your take on a migrant population’s effect on the host country? Let us know in the comments!
~About The Author~
Harshul is a keen learner, who loves to explore oneself in this mundane world and make sense of it.
Learning and unlearning at same time is his greatest passion.
If you are looking for a company, he will be a great companion to chat with, he will awe you with his love for Ghibli and anime.
