The Immigration Debate

The following is a debate between a lecturer and some of his students. The topic of the debate is “immigration”. The main participants in the debate include the lecturer, John, Mary, Jane and Mike. The debate took place in one of their lecturer halls on 23rd July this year. Lecturer: Good evening everyone. The topic of our debate today is “immigration” as I had informed you earlier.

So let’s start by defining immigration. Immigration involves the process of moving from one country to another with the purpose of staying there permanently. Lecturer: Jane, what are some of the reasons for immigration? Jane: People migrate from one country to another for many reasons. They include the following; economical, political, issues of natural disaster, poverty, and family issues as well as the desire to change the environment. Lecturer: John, can you inform us on laws and regulations governing immigration. John: First of all, one has to apply for passport in order to be allowed to move to another country either temporary or permanently.

Although immigration law is not uniform all over the world, some procedures are common and have to be followed. United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has made a decree that every citizen is entitled to entry into their own countries. In United States for instance, federal laws are given such privileges to determine whether an individual can be labeled as an alien as well as come up with his or her legal rights, obligations as well as duties. Federal overnment also sets procedures and process to be followed by any one migrating to United States. Therefore, for one to obtain full citizen rights, he or she has to undergo the regulation set by the federal government.

This body also ensures that cases of illegal immigration are minimized. Different agencies also shares this duties to make work more effective and in the bid to ensure that constitutional rights are followed and that no one is denied rights tom move in or out of united states based on other matters (Massey, 2007). In addition, embassies as well as consulates play an important role in immigration. Finally, Department of state in United States is entitled with the responsibility of ensuring that immigrants era handled well and that border are respected.Lecturer: Mary, what are the recent statistics on immigration Mary: Recent statistics according to international organization for immigration (IOM) shows that there have been increased rate of immigration in the recent years. About 200 million people around the world migrate yearly.

Europe is said to be leading with the largest number of people who are about 70.6 million. The second one is North America with about 45.1 million. This is closely followed by Asia.

In fact in 2005, about 3 percent of the population in the world migrated. Many people migrate to developed countries to seek greener pastures. The survey further stipulates that increased in the number of refugees into other countries have a negative impact. The rate of globalization has risen with the increased in the number of people moving from one country to annother. Lecturer: what are the global effects of immigration?Mike: Immigration has both negative and positive effects.

Some of the positive effects include the following: globalization has been facilitated by immigration. As people move from one country to another, they are able to gain some experience that can be used back in their country. Although they may stay there permanently, the truth is that there is likelihood that this person will reflect his knowledge and experience to his or her mother country (Harald, 2006). Another positive effect is increased innovation and creation of wealth. Mainly, people migrate with the purpose to seek greener pastures. Thus, economically, people have been able to benefit in one way or another.

This is because, when people come together, they are able to share ideas that advance the level of innovation. Nevertheless, there are notable negative effects of immigration. First, cases of illegal immigration have resulted into terrorism something that adversely affects people. Secondly, people tend to prefer developed countries neglecting their former countries making them to lag behind in terms of development. The last and not the least, refugees have increased. By the virtue that refugees seek asylum into other countries bring burden to them as well as to international community by depleting their resources.

Lecturer: I’m elated by your contributions into this debate. It is by your effort to conduct thorough research that has made this debate on immigration successful. Till we meet again thank you all.