Immigration ( Microeconomics) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Immigration ( Microeconomics) - Essay Example Infact the issue of immigration has assumed a transnational importance in the last three decades. It is not without a reason that immigration has become a hot topic throughout the Western world in the contemporary times. Politicians and informed citizens are highly polarized in their opinion regarding immigration because of the impact it may have or is supposed to have on the demography, culture and especially the economy of the concerned nations. More then half a million people from varied countries and ethnic backgrounds enter the US every year. As per some conservative estimates, nearly 12 million illegal immigrants presently call the United States their home. The very magnitude of immigration in North America, EU and Australia raises many disturbing questions. Is immigration good for the countries having liberal immigration laws Will the immigrants have a salubrious influence on the economies of these nations Should the immigration laws be further liberalized Do the economies of these countries have the ability and the potential to absorb the large scale skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workforce generated by accommodating immigration policies Will immigration lead to many related problems like terrorism, radicalism and surplus workforce Pragmatically speaking, immigration is bound to stimulate the Western Economies. At least, the available demographic and economic data points towards this conclusion.It is a basic economic fact that the fast growing economies do have an insatiable hunger for resources, physical capital and above all human capital. So the fundamental query should be that are the major Western economies growing at a pace where they need tremendous input in terms of human capital from other countries It will be really interesting to look into the economic prospects of some of the topmost Western economies. As for the US economy, the data furnished by the authentic and reliable global organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, targeted at the eight years of Bush's presidency indicate a pink and plump state of affairs (Perry). According to the World Bank statistics, the GDP per capita in the United States rose to $ 41,813 in 2005 (Perry). As per an IMF report, between the years 2001-2008, the real American GDP "grew at an average annual rate of 2.2 % (Perry)." The unemployment rate in the US also stood at a tolerable and stable figure of 4.7 % between 2001-2007 (Perry).Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth - United States - USA (%) 2.5 3.7 4.5 4.2 4.4 3.7 0.8 1.6 2.5 3.9 3.2 3.4 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth - United States - USA (%), Source: Eurostat(euroekonom.com) European Union, which is the largest economic and trading block of the world, is also expected to outperform the past expectations in terms of economic