My first article for my college magazine. (The Aecian) -
Human beings since time immemorial have migrated in to new places in search of food, resources, opportunities, etc. with the advent of the modern age land inhabited by people have come to be divided into sovereign regions governed by special laws limited to the region. However human beings can seldom be confined to mere geographical regions. And thus migration still continues and have been instrumental in bringing about cultural exchange amongst different communities. On the other hand illegal immigration has been under much criticism as it robs the native and legal inhabitants of many opportunities.
Illegal immigration is criminal migration to a country/state in violation of the immigration laws of that country/state. Illegal immigration is not endemic to any particular region of the world and is prevalent in different corners of the world from the united states to our very own Assam. Illegal immigration is a serious problem and many attempts have been made to control it but it still continues to this day.
Immigration happens only when people are deprived of opportunities(social, economical, cultural), security, good living standards and are assured of better conditions to the place where they want to migrate but cannot do so legally. Illegal immigration only happens from a country/state which has poor living conditions, bad economy, violence prone, etc. top a country/state which has a stable better economy, better living conditions, employment opportunities etc. Thus we see that people from Mexico illegally migrate to united states and so is the case with the people from Bangladesh to India and not the other way round. Porous borders and lenient border policing only encourage illegal immigration.
Illegal immigration has huge social, economic and political repercussions for the legal citizens of the country/state. These aliens are never shown in the national census/register of citizens and thus take up resources which go unaccounted. Since they are not legal inhabitants therefore they don’t pay taxes and thus act as a burden on the taxpayers and the government. Also they take up employment opportunities from natives as they provide cheaper labor in worse conditions. They are also involved in encroachment of forest and government land resulting in greater prices of land. Also in many instances due to weak legislation and due to involvement of vested political interests they attain citizenship and lead to a sudden surge in population which the government finds difficult to allocate funds for and leads to riots and clashes between the “new citizens” and the “sons of the soil”. Also many illegal immigrants end up being victims of human trafficking, organ transplant, drug porting etc.
Although many measures have been taken up to curb and control illegal immigration none have been hugely successful. Border fencing have been tried but very few international borders are completely sealed and it is not possible for many governments, especially the third world countries, to allocate resources for the same. Corruption has been always been a detriment to border fencing and policing. Also the involvement of political parties in legalizing the illegal immigrants to further their vote bank has been a constant source of roadblock to take out these aliens. Deportation of illegal immigrants is seldom implemented and very few of those deported try not to illegally enter again. In many instances the country of origin of the illegal immigrants refuse to take them back when deported and thus resulting in a humanitarian crisis.
For illegal immigration to be controlled better legislation must be enacted and enforced without corruption. Those who illegally immigrate must be deported with little delay and punished if necessary so as to discourage others from doing so. Also political parties must rise above their narrow vested interests and think for the greater good of the country/state they reside in and take appropriate measures. Even though illegal immigration can not be stopped altogether but it can be curbed to a large extent so as to give the legal inhabitants of the country/state ample opportunities to excel at.
