If all countries worldwide eliminated all barriers to immigration would global economic growth increase? Why or why not? How would the labor markets impact the economic growth?
To answer this week’s questions, let’s see what immigration is first. According to Umera (n.d.), we can simply define immigration as relocating to a new area and aiming to live there. It can be another region or even another country. There are many different reasons why people immigrate, and immigration itself affects the economy so drastically, that there are lots of discussions and debates about it.
If there were no barriers to immigration, the whole world would change a lot in many aspects. But today we will talk about the increase in the world’s global economic growth. In 2017, there was a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which claimed that immigration positively affected the economy (Mollenkamp, 2021). Immigration can be a wanted one and a necessary one. In the first case, people tend to match the needed skills and education for their new occupation, and in the second they need to adapt. Over time, immigrants tend to provide a good contribution to the economy of the country, which results in a higher GDP. Also, the second generation of immigrants often has better education and more opportunities than the first one, therefore, they can pay more taxes. Some people are seriously concerned that immigrants affect wages of local people negatively, but in fact, several reports and the evidence claim that such effect is minimal or even close to zero (Mollenkamp, 2021). Moreover, some other reports stated that there was a small raise in salaries.
Immigration provides multiculturalism, diversity, and new economic opportunities. Nowadays international companies have the opportunity to hire top talents from all around the world. Such cooperation and the immigration of skilled workers lead to increased productivity and increased economic growth.
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References
Umera Sh. A. (n.d.) Immigration, why, and for what purpose? Retrieved from https://www.jp.onkyo.com/braille_essay/2017/as02.htm
Mollenkamp D.T. (September 30, 2021). How immigration affects the economy. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0809/3-ways-immigration-helps-and-hurts-the-economy.aspx