The Great Migration

By: Bikal Dhungel 

Humans are by nature a nomadic folk. The early humans, the hunters and gatherers survived by moving. They moved from places to places in search of foods. Once agriculture was discovered, humans remained in one places as they did not need to hunt for foods. Agriculture gave birth to human societies and humans settled in fertile lands, which slowly expanded. Agricultural societies existed from Mesopotamia to Egypt to India to China and many other parts. This is also when civilization started. It was the beginning of ' belonging ' and ' possession'. When hunters and gatherers moved from one place to other, they didn't need to possess anything except their tools like bows and arrows, used to hunt animals. But since they had installed societies that used lands to practice agriculture, when their population rise, they needed more fertile lands to feed themselves. Then they started to steal lands by raising wars against other groups of humans. But still, the agricultural society didn't stay in one place. Sometimes there was natural catastrophes, sometimes there was human-made violence that made them move. The origin of humans is believed to be in East Africa but humans are found everywhere. How did the aboriginals trapped in Australia ? How did the native Americans reached the north american continent ? Because they migrated from other places.

Many accept Globalization as a modern phenomenon but it always existed. The world was globalized every time as the other. People migrated for trade, looking for prosperity to the other parts. Sometimes they were forced to moved due to natural calamities and sometimes it was due to human reasons like political repressions, a phenomenon that is quite new. In the year 1914, exactly 100 years ago, the world was equally globalized as today. That time the Colonialists from today's European countries lived in former colonies and today it is mostly other way around. Today, things also turn bit radical. Immigration is differently understood than it used to be. Immigrants brought prosperity to the new countries namely America, Canada and Australia. The same people then started imposing restrictions for other potential immigrants. There are clear evidences that the pros of immigration clearly outweighs the cons if there are rules and regulations and if there are at least chances for everybody to thrive and prosper. Take the Jews in America for instance. Most of the Jews that live in America came from Germany and other European states when Adolf Hitler came to power and politically repressed them. During and after World War II, they were joined by millions of others, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. There are more Jews living in America than the Jewish state of Israel. Interesting fact about the Jews is that, they are just 0.3% of world population whereas almost 35% of Nobel Prizes have been awarded to the Jews, in the field of Economics, its 50%. In private industries, they have done equally well. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Google's Sergei Brin to name the few. Regarding other inventions, Thomas Salk, who discovered Polio Vaccine, Albert Einstein who discovered the theory of relativity, Sigmund Freud who is the father of Psychology, Niels Bohr who is discovered Quantum Theory, and even Karl Marx, who is the father of Communism were Jewish and most of them or their parents and grandparents emigrated from Europe to North America only recently. The Jews are the most nomadic folks than any other groups. Since the time of Jesus Christ, they have spread throughout the world and until 1948, did not have their own country. In places they have lived, they brought many inventions which helped the whole humanity. Few of the Jewish inventions are for example Television Remote Control, Traffic Lights, Genetic Engineering, Radiation, Chemotherapy, FAX, Optical Fiber, Video Recorder, Walkies Talkies, Stainless Steel etc. In entertainment industry, Bob Dylan, Steven Spielberg and Chelsea's boss Roman Abrahamotivtz ( who directly most of Vladimir Putin's decision ) are Jewish.

Like the Jewish, other immigrant groups have brought prosperity in the form of goods, foods and technologies. Still, the views about immigration is still negative. It is due to the view that immigrants only want the slice of the cake. It can be justified by some statistics which shows that immigrants are for example more likely to be unemployed than the natives and have lower level of education than the locals. This cause negative resentments in the minds of natives who then lobby their political representatives to enact policies to restrict immigration.

However, we should see why the immigrants from Europe who went to new lands were prosperous and why the people from today's developing countries who come to Europe and America are lagging behind the natives. The Europeans who immigrated to America did not face any restrictions. They could theoretically go to America, start any business they think will bring profit and live the life they preferred. Slowly they became rich and started giving jobs to the locals. Today's immigrants face lots of restrictions like , they are not allowed to work, they have limitations if they want to start their business, they don't have equal access to education system, sometimes due to language barriers etc. This limits their chances.

But the issue here is immigration in general. Immigration can be positive as well as negative, all depends on the circumstances. In today's world, there can be no open borders, especially between rich and poor countries. Four fifths of the world are poor and live in developing countries. In the case of open borders, a large majority of them would emigrate to rich countries posing a tremendous burdens in the social system which probably will break down. But this is also not the issue here, the issue is only how the immigration policy is evolving. It is a human tendency to move to wealthier parts whatsoever. People are not hesitating to take perilous journey to reach prosperous countries. Only last year, about 25,000 people died while crossing the Mediterranean sea to reach Europe and about 80,000 made it. Hundreds of thousands are waiting for their try in Mexico to cross the border to reach United States. Australia and New Zealand equally face the inflow of people from other parts. Most of these people come as refugees. How to handle these people remain a topic that has been intensely discussed but it has divided the western societies into two big parts, one that is pro immigration and one that is against. Both groups are raising a warfare with arguments, statistics and facts to justify their arguments. Even within one union, the European Union, the issue of Immigration has divided the member states. Countries like Germany and Sweden are taking a liberal policy by accepting most of the immigrants and refugees whereas other countries are silent about it. The war in Syria, the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the poverty in Africa has caused hundreds of thousands to move north to Europe. So, Germany and Sweden face a huge burden to take a bigger share whereas other countries tend to be reluctant to take any refugees. It has also given rise of right wing parties that are openly campaigning against refugees, in some of the cases, their arguments are also true, for example: people who can pay tens of thousands of dollars to human traffickers to reach Europe are really refugees or just the ones who want to make more money. What about the real vulnerable groups in any civil war, that means women, children, elderly, handicapped etc. Why are the majority of these refugees are young men between 16 to 40 ? If they think their life is not secure in the countries where they came from, what about the people who are still living there ? Arguments goes on and on but it is also true that, groups such as Islamic State or Taliban are massacring innocents.

But immigration is not only about from poor to rich countries. It is also from rich to rich countries. The Euro crisis has caused high immigration from eastern and southern Europe to western Europe. The high wages has caused high immigration from western Europe to Switzerland. The Swiss then went to the referendum last year which voted to restrict immigration from the European Union. Again at the end of this month, there is another referendum about the quota of immigration restriction to Switzerland. Either this is good for Switzerland or not is a different issue, but blaming foreigners for Swiss problem is totally wrong. Most immigrants to Switzerland are highly educated individuals who have secured job. They had brought more good to Switzerland than they cost. Swiss Elites and intellectuals have understood this fact. We can clearly see the tendency of voters in last election. The most prosperous cities, like Geneva, Zürich , Basel and almost all french speaking Switzerland voted against the restriction for foreigners while most rural parts and Italian speaking south voted for restriction. Areas where the number of foreigners are few voted against. Most rural Swiss who voted for restriction are convinced that it is their goats, cows, pigs and hens that brought prosperity to Switzerland but in fact it is the financial industry which relies on highly educated foreigners and the money from abroad that helped Switzerland to be one of the most prosperous countries in the world. So, the consequences of immigration restriction might be worse than they thought.

It is also true that, Western Europe must allow immigrants. Their population is ageing, they will have lots of older people in 30 years whose pensions should be paid by young people who are not there yet. Their birth rate is less than what is needed to balance the population. The population of countries like Russia has decreased in the past. At the same time, people are living longer and longer. That means, they need somebody to care them as well, and the ones who pays their pension. Without allowing immigration, this is not possible. The center for economic research in Germany has calculated that, Germany should allow almost half million net immigration per year for the next 15 years in order to maintain the prosperity they are enjoying today. The issue is also about trained professionals. There are high scarcity of doctors, engineers, IT specialists, teachers, care takers, and industrial specialists. The only option that is available in immigration. The same story is true for Japan as well, Japan has one of the highest life expectancy, there are so many old people like never before and so few younger people. In the present scenario, Japan cannot sustain its prosperity. The pension system will collapse as there will be only fewer people to pay in it. If Japan continues to remain tough in immigration issues like today, in order to finance its pension system, it needs to raise tax. The fewer younger people will then feel over-burdened and have incentive to move abroad. This will cause the brain-drain, which is bad for efficiency of Japanese industries. This might lead to the downfall of an industrial nation. The prosperity Japan achieved after the Meiji Restoration, will come to an end. Sooner or later, it should allow immigrants in, and invest in them to use for its competitive economy.

However, it should be taken into consideration that only allowing immigrants inside will not solve their problems. There should be a proper system. If immigrants are not given equal chances, if they face high barriers to universities and job markets, in some decades, there will be few million people without skill who would need social support to survive, creating burdens to already over-burdened society. So, the job of the authorities today should be to ensure that at least everybody has an equal chance to chase their dreams by studying, by being an entrepreneur and by being a responsible citizen. Immigration can help the rich countries to maintain their high standards, so this issue should be handled intelligently and at the same time, the issues of poor countries should also be taken into account especially when richer countries enacting liberal immigration might cause the emigration of people like doctors and other health professionals who are vitally needed in poor countries today. A welcoming culture is equally necessary as, if you are not welcoming, there are other countries where immigrants will choose to go.

What is true is, immigration was always there and it will always be there. Only when we handle this issue in an appropriate way, in a human way, it will cause good for the whole world. If we continue making immigrants scapegoats and blaming them for our problems, we will only divide the society which will surely cause destruction in a massive scale.