Causes of migration
The migration of people from one country to another is driven by a number of factors within the country and outside the country. These factors can be classified into push and pull factors. Pull factors are the attractants to the country n which people move to. Employment is one of the contributing factors. People can move from their country of origin to another one because they are in search of new employment opportunities or in search of greener pastures. Apart from employment, trade is another factor that can pull people into a different country. For instance people can move from the United States to countries like India and China because of the lucrative trade. People can also move to other countries because of marriages. This is especially common in women whereby they have to migrate to countries of origin of their husbands. Climatic conditions can also make people to migrate to other countries where the climatic conditions are favorable. A good example is when Europeans tour Africa and find conducive weather, some of them have ended up migrating completely to Africa. Natural calamities such as drought, famine and epidemics can result in the movement of people to neighboring counties where conditions are much better. War and political instability is a major cause of people moving from one nation to another. This can be exemplified by the recent situation in Gaza which caused most of the people who were residing in the region to flee for safety in other nations.
War leads to the migration of people to the neighboring countries where they become refugees.
Poverty is also another root cause of migration especially in the underdeveloped world. People move in an attempt to improve their standards of living.
Injustices in some countries have made people to migrate to exile in other countries where they find solace.
Effects of migration
The impact of migration is felt both in the country where there is movement from to the other county where there is movement to. Migration results in increased population in the receiving country and a decline in population in the loosing country. Migration causes the emergence of new culture as people form different background meet. The natives and the non-natives intermarry and bring about a new generation with a different culture. In the receiving country there are cases of resources being overstretched with the increasing population. Social amenities such as schools, Medicare and housing become inadequate to satisfy the needs of the increased population. In the countries where people migrate from there inadequacy especially in the labor force as most of the people who are supposed to work move out.
In the receiving country cases of the labor market being flooded arise.
From educational point of view countries that receive professionals benefit a lot in terms of knowledge and skills. Due to the available employment opportunities the governments benefit in terms of taxes that are paid by the professionals and other workers. In the losing country the case is vice versa whereby the government looses a lot of revenue as workers or professionals move to other countries. Such countries also loose in terms of knowledge and expertise as their well educated people migrate. This phenomenon high quite often been referred to as “brain drain”. This has been the case in most developing counties who loose professionals to the world economic powers.
References
Louka T. Katseli, Robert E.B Lucas and Theodora Xenogiani, 2006 , Effects Of Migration On Sending Countries.
Manning, Patrick Migration in World History, New York and London: Routledge 2005.