Back To CourseSociology 104: World Population
8 chapters | 88 lessons
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Kevin has edited encyclopedias, taught middle and high school history, and has a master's degree in Islamic law.
How many times have you thought about moving someplace else? If you're in the United States, it's relatively easy to pick up and move across the country. If you're Canadian, the same could be said about moving from Halifax to Vancouver. But what about if you want to move from Canada to the United States? Or if you live in the United States and want to move to France? In those cases, you would run into regulations regarding immigration.
Millions of people try to move around to different countries for a variety of reasons. Some leave home for fortune, some for love, and some simply to enjoy better weather. As you can imagine, some countries are more popular than others. Hundreds of millions of people would love to live in the United States or Europe, while relatively few are lining up for the Central African Republic. As a result, many countries that people would love to move to have policies about migration. The ethics of these policies can be particularly challenging, as we will see.
At the base of the Statue of Liberty is a poem with the words 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' This phrase describes the immigration policy of the United States towards many European countries during the late 19th century. Immigration from places like Ireland, Italy, and Poland was encouraged as a way of building the population. However, the U.S.'s Open Door Policy, by which people could freely enter the country, had ethical setbacks. Many immigrants lived in relative squalor, complicated by the fact that there were often deeply held biases against the new arrivals.
Still, the United States was not always in support of the Open Door Policy. On the West Coast, it was much harder for Asian immigrants to gain access to the country. In fact, for many people, the opposite was true. The United States had a Closed-Door Policy for Asian immigrants, meaning that almost no individuals were permitted to immigrate. Obviously, the policy was racist. However, many undocumented people of Asian descent arrived in the United States regardless.
It wasn't only people of Asian descent who were discriminated against. During various points of American history, Southern Europeans, Jewish people, Latinos, and Africans faced heavy discrimination. A prime example of this was the Immigration Act of 1924, which placed outright bans on the immigration of Arabs and Asians, while limiting other nationalities to percentages based on the numbers currently present in the United States. However, despite these bans, people kept coming to the United States in hope of a better life. Yet without official documentation permitting them to stay, they received relatively little in the way of services geared to protecting vulnerable populations.
The ethical question of allowing unregulated immigration from Europe and heavily limited immigration from Asia was a point of concern as the United States attempted to move away from racist practices of the past. Today, much immigration to the United States is quota-based, meaning that there are limits based on country of origin. This is in contrast to the past, when earlier quota systems were based on the race of the individual in question.
Also, there is a relatively limited number of such visas available, almost entirely decided upon the basis of a random lottery held within each country of origin. Added weight is given for countries that have recently low numbers of people immigrating to the United States. Many of these changes came as a result of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which established the country of origin-based system of immigration to the United States.
Still, after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, other changes went into effect. As well as random spots, effort would be made to reunite families, as well as attract immigrants with special skills with the 1990 Immigration Act. Additionally, the total number of immigrants was limited. As a result, immigration in the United States has changed from an ethical black spot of racial discrimination to one that at some level attempts to be an ethical plan.
Still, the current plan is far from perfect. Due to U.S. citizenship laws, the children of undocumented immigrants who are born in the United States are American citizens. Citizenship is normally transferred from parent to child, but rarely from child to parent. As a result, there is significant controversy on how to handle cases which could disadvantage American citizens whose parents are in the country without proper documentation.
Many other countries face the same issues as the United States with regards to immigration and naturalization. Some states place a greater difference between right to stay and access to citizenship. For example, many European states have relatively low bars to cross for the right to stay, but most have more stringent requirements for citizenship. This is done so as to avoid the ethical question of denying people in need while still protecting the nature of the nation in question.
However, like the United States, many countries throw the door open for those with the wealth and ability to add to the economy. For example, gaining right to settle in the United Kingdom is relatively difficult, unless one gains an entrepreneur visa by providing investment-ready assets of more than 50,000 pounds.
One other exception exists. Israel, as a state established for the Jewish people with that Jewish heritage very close to its national ideal, permits accelerated immigration and citizenship for people of the Jewish faith. In this case, preference for a faith outweighs any other concerns.
In this lesson, we looked at the ethics of immigration, largely using the United States as a model. We saw how open-door policies largely allowed many people to move in but were rarely perfect as they encouraged nativist sentiments. Closed-door policies, on the other hand, were often very racist in practice.
Quota-based systems were less ethically charged, but better still were systems that reunited families or rewarded those with special skills. In Europe, a dichotomy between right to remain and citizenship helped to solve such dilemmas, while many countries favor those who are rich over the poor. Finally, Israel places Jewish faith as the most important factor for immigration.
The ethics of immigration are complex and warrant scrutiny. The United States had an Open Door Policy for Europeans in the 19th century, but migrants faced squalor and nativism. The U.S. had a Closed-Door Policy for many non-Europeans; the Immigration Act of 1924 placed an outright ban on Asians and Arabs. Today, the U.S. uses a quota system based on country of origin. Other examples include the United Kingdom granting the right to remain if you are wealthy and can add to the economy. You can be on the fast-track to be an Israeli citizen if you are of the Jewish faith.
After completing this lesson, you should be able to discuss the ethics of migration policies and cite real-world examples.
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Back To CourseSociology 104: World Population
8 chapters | 88 lessons