International Migration--A Debate

Economist Debates: International Migration: Statements: "In addition to border and visa controls that regulate migratory flows, considerable cultural, linguistic and other barriers limit international migration. For example, even in the European Union, where policymakers have desperately tried to remove barriers to mobility, less than 2% of the population is thought to live in another member state. This should be compared with some 3% of Americans move to a different US state every year."

There is an ongoing debate this week at The Economist where International Migration is discussed. Found this interesting comparison in the argument of the opposition, arguing that migration is a good thing, and currently have 70% of the votes.

Even if they have been talking about moving around in Europe they are far behind the mobility observed in the US. It is probably very important for people to move to areas where work is accessible at a given time. There is a great resistance in these work related moves even inside a country like Sweden. The government is currently trying to motivate people, and even legislate, to increase the mobility.

One comment argued for less migration for maintaining diversity. It is an interesting argument since it rhymes with environmental concerns for maintaining various species in nature. However, benefits from mixing people from different areas is probably currently superior to potential loss of diversity. The people of the earth are still quite diverse and on top of this it seems like people are more or less the same and that most of the differences stem from physical attributes like skin color and the like.

Other arguments against International Migration was that given countries should be allowed to maintain their uniqueness and inspire immigrant to assimilate. However, a guest writer argued that the moral attributes for such inspiration has dwindled, at least in the US, and that multiculturalism thus is maintaining itself.

Other arguments for the migration was that there is so much economical differences among countries that some degree of equalization was motivated. It was also pointed out that migrants in rich countries send home $300b per year. A considerable aid to poor countries. Thus migration is altruistic in nature, as well as beneficial economically for the recipient countries.