Immigration

Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. An immigrant is someone who intends to reside permanently, and not a casual visitor or traveler. Immigration means "in-migration" into a country, and is the reverse of emigration, or "out-migration." The long term and/or permanent movement of human population in general, whether into, out of, or within countries (or before the existence of recognised countries) is regarded as migration.

National reactions to immigration

Throughout the world, immigration is a controversial issue. All developed nations put restrictions on how many people can immigrate to them. These are usually justified on economic grounds with worries that many poor workers would lower wages and the nation's standard of living. Sometimes the justification for limiting immigration is cultural. The latter is heard most strongly in some homogenous old world (European) nations where citizenship was long tied to a person having deep historical roots in the country. Western European nations, Japan, and other countries have long been deeply concerned about their national culture being subsumed. This concern can be especially high when the immigrants are of differing race or religion than the majority.

Related Topics:
Economic - Old world - Europe - Western Europe - Japan

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Immigration into European countries is a rather recent trend, though until the 1970s and 1980s the levels were relatively modest. Recent increases in immigration have led to the development of political parties in Europe which are almost solely concerned with limiting immigration. In Hong Kong population growth is driven by new immigrants from mainland China, while the natural growth is negative.

Related Topics:
Hong Kong - Population growth - New immigrant - Mainland China - Natural growth

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Only five countries in the world have policies that "actively encourage" large numbers of immigrants: The United States, Israel, Canada, Australia and New Zealand . These nations still restrict the numbers of people allowed to immigrate, but in most of these countries where population growth was historically entirely due to the relatively large level of immigration have in recent years seen a change in attitude. The countries now permit immigration in particular circumstances, e.g., to fill jobs where a skill is not available locally, for wealthy investors or business leaders, in cases of marriage, multiple citizenship or asylum, or under multilateral agreements such as within the European Union or between New Zealand and Australia. The trend is towards the closing of borders of countries that traditionally welcomed immigrants (the US, Canada, Australia for example), and an opening of borders in countries that were once homogeneous (Germany, the UK for example).

Related Topics:
United States - Israel - Canada - Australia - New Zealand - Marriage - Multiple citizenship - Asylum - European Union

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