Immigration in Europe

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Immigration in Europe
The selected immigrant groups and the countries of destination
Immigration is the process by which people move and live in a foreign country. People move to countries they are not citizens and do not have citizenship and becomes immigrants to that nation. In most cases, immigrants stay permanently in the states they have moved to and at times acquire citizenship as indicated in (Migration and migrant…para 2). With current crises for instance in Syria a war tone are, citizens are fleeing to Europe both legally and illegally for their safety. These people become refugees and are protected by international humanitarian laws. The global immigrant population between 1990 and 2005 was 119 million immigrants. More than 100 million immigrants live in the developed countries like Canada and German. Approximately 38 million of these immigrants live in the USA making it a 20% of the immigrants. This figure translates into an immigrant population in the USA makes 13% of the USA population. Europe supports 33% of the immigrant’s population making it the frequent destination of choice for immigrants in the world. 28 countries in the world carry approximately 75 % of the total immigrant population.95 million of the immigrants are women representing around 80 % of the total immigrant population as indicated in (Migration and migrant…para 5). They are also immigrants especially for those cases that have no intentions of going back to their countries even after piece have been restored.

European countries especially German, France and the United Kingdom, have experienced an increased number of immigrants from across the world for various reasons.
A) Where immigrants are coming from;
From the 2013 Eurostat report, it was indicated that German had 692.7 thousand immigrants that were the highest in Europe. The United Kingdom was reported to host 526 thousand immigrant and became the second largest regarding the hosting of immigrants. The third state was France with 336.2 thousand immigrants that reside within her borders. The immigrant who came from German comes from Turkey with a current 2.5 million being the highest percentage (Migration and migrant…para 4). The second group of immigrants to German, come from Yugoslavia and currently with a population of 1.5 million persons. From estimates, there are four million people from Muslim states that have moved to German. Migrants from the United Kingdom comes from Ireland, and others come from former colonies to the United Kingdom. The colonies include Kenya from Eastern Africa and India from the Asian subcontinent. Other immigrants go to the United Kingdom as asylum seekers or due to wars in their nation’s and later they are considered legal migrants and awarded the United Kingdom citizenship. French migrant statistic, reveal that France gets most of its immigrants from countries from European member states. The European member states contribute to a 45% of the total number of immigrants. 30% of the immigrants originates from the African nations located in the northwestern parts of the African continent like Morocco (Migration and migrant…para 5). In France, the issue of immigration has gained interest in the parliament in a quest to amend laws concerning immigration in France, since it has become a crisis. Most immigrants move to Paris the capital city of France.
The selected immigrant groups include people from Arab countries, people from the African continent and fellow European states like European. As indicated above for instance France receives people from African countries like Morocco probably due to its proximity as compared to other European countries, they also host immigrants from European countries I the surroundings like Luxembourg. German has highest numbers of immigrants and currently are welcoming even more refugees from Syria, which is an Arab country As shown in (Kaplow para 10, 2015). They have already reported a four million Muslim population or people from Arab countries. The United Kingdom had many colonies, and it has been attracting immigrants from these nation due to the colonial links. It has attracted fellow European state like people from Ireland who were formerly under the colonization by England before forming the United Kingdom. Also, a percentage of people from Muslim states are found in the United Kingdom; some have chosen to acquire citizenship through legal and illegal means to maintain their citizenship in the United Kingdom similarly to those immigrants who move from their respective regions due to reasons like war, economic hardships. Some of the immigrants are due to educational purposes and chooses to remain to the countries where they went to study.

B) The particular European countries they are going to;
German is one of the largest European states and among the richest countries with very high standards of living in the world with its capital city in Berlin since 1990. It is the most industrialized and with the highest population in Europe. German have always been the economic power in Europe apart from having the military might. It was once divided into West and East German but after the end of cold war, the two blocks united and became one German (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd). The Berlin wall was abolished, and people started moving from poor East German to the economically stable West German. The West German have always been economically powerful than the Easter part, and people have rapidly been moving to the west to get better opportunities. The 2008-2009 global economic crises led to the worst recession that German had experienced but by 2010 its export- dependent economy was more stabilized than for other European states. Most of the German population is the aged generation of people, and so most of their expenditure have been directed to welfare funding and on the healthcare services as indicated in (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd). The country is known for welcoming immigrants, who have been attributed to the booming economy since they are a source of labor in the economic sectors. German is an integral part of the European Union since they are linked to being the six founding members in the 1980s. They have a strong culture that include German foods and German brew dating back in the 1500s. Ludwig van Beethoven is a German musician who incorporates the value of music in their culture. Great academic scholars like Thomas Mann have contributed to the philosophies that are used in the world currently. They are bordered by France, Netherlands, Poland, and Belgium with a flag with color red black and yellow.
United Kingdom (UK) is formed by a union of four states that is North Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland. The UK was the first European country to industrialize and was the European economic power block before and after the world wars. Their economy is currently primarily based on the service industry and partly manufacturing. The shifting to service industry based economy has led to social and economic problems, although it is still one of the major economic and political blocks in the European Union (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd). The UK have had concerns about existing the European Union over sovereignty and autonomy issue but some proponents suggest that the move would lead to economic crises since it most of its foreign trading activities, are conducted within the European Union. For instance over the 2007 referendum more than 50 % of the UK population was in support of remaining within the Union while the others were either not sure or wanted to exit the union and be independent as a four-nation union. The UK is made up of four-nation with various cultural practices including the recent and past immigration issues, and the seeking of national identity makes the UK a unique union with the European Union. It accommodates all that diversity without a problem making it ideal for immigrants to visit. The UK is recognized for its support of the global youth culture since the early 1960s where rock star singers like the rolling stones had a great impact and highly treasured by the public for their cultural contribution. With ancient great English writers like William shake spares, it is clearly evident that the UK has a rich literary heritage that defines their origin of their current literal works. The UK is famous across the world for its active participation in matters of security and global concern. The UK is known for its military power especially the navy and have maintained the same reputation over the year since the end of world wars. For instance, they have been head in Afghanistan dismantling terrorist and extreme Islamic bases. Their contribution to NATO activities shows how it’s a powerful part of the European Union. The capital city is in London and according to the 2011 census, the population 62.4 million people. They are headed by Queen Elizabeth (11) who has been in power since 1952. They have the head government who is also the prime minister while the queen is the head of state and her post is mainly ceremonial (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd).. The UK is also among the wealthy nations of the world, with good living standards.
France is among the six founder states of the European Union, with a signing of the Franco-German treaty the foundation of the European Union of which France is a key member was established in the 1980s. Her economic corporation with German helped to build the foundation of the European economic system. France and Corsica are the mainlands with regions over distant from the European Union making up a total of 26 regions. It has been divided into 100 departments, with a centralized government to govern all the 26 regions. In 2003, the constitutional amendments changed the centralization of the government to a devolution governance with regions given powers to administer regional governments and department but reports to the central government in France (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd). The constitutional amendment was necessitated by the perception by other regions as ubiquitous leadership influence by elites from Paris the capital city. The protest over Paris dominance was cold since most people exhibited their dissatisfaction by not turning up to vote which was realized to have been triggered by a feeling by other regions to have been dominated by the people close to the central government and the capital city. With great thinkers and like Pascal and great writers from the 17th century like Descartes, French is a great contributor to the world of science and literature. Culturally it is a diverse state with most immigrants from African states and Arab languages and some from South Asian where they once colonized (‘Migration and migrant’…., nd). During the colonial period, they practiced assimilation as a way of leadership, and this contributed to increased number of assimilated African –French people making it a multicultural state. They have the culture that include French foods like French fries, cheese and among the best world wines.
C) Why they settle where they do;
Political stability, most of the immigrants from the Arab nation like Afghans and Syria including those from African states especially northern African countries like Tunisia and Libya due to war crises ( Kaplow, para1, 2015). Syria is the best example with ongoing war as USA and Russia being the world superpowers that have joined to help solve the crises. With political stability in the European countries, the immigrant aims to continue with education and establish their economic status on a stable ground. Those who run to Europe for asylum seeking are immigrant and are looking for safety from their motherland.
Prospects of better jobs, most countries in Africa are undeveloped and hence little or no opportunity for success for the learned persons. They find no opportunity to exploit their learned skills. They are at the time find no job since most of this curriculum are not covered in the job market. They, as a result, become economic immigrants as they move to Europe to get better jobs and explore further along their career ( Kaplow, para 4, 2015). Poor nations are also accompanied by corruption and impunity for those who participate in criminal activities and has a strong connection with the ruling government. With corruption, jobs are offered on favors and it hard to secure one without a political linkage.
Proximity to the Middle East and Africa, Europe is close to these two regions prompting immigration. For instance, Greece has an island that is close to the shores of Turkey that make it convenient to Turkish immigrants to land their boats ( Kaplow, 2015). Once they easy access Europe via Greece and then after a while of adaptation and learning of learning survival skills, they later move to richer nations and the popular destiny is German.

d) Their integration into the culture of the host country?
They are culturally integrated since they are welcomed to those nations. For instance African through colonization were already transformed and introduced to European language, religion, and lifestyle. Once they are in Europe, they still find the same religions they are used to in Africa. Muslims also enjoy their culture since most of the European Union countries support the freedom of worship. The Muslim with their dressing code are allowed to enjoy it since there is no restriction on how to dress, as in cases with the Arab nations where women are required to cover most of their body. Some of these immigrants change and embrace the European cultures due to their nature and some out of the spirit of adventure. Most of these legal immigrants are given jobs and paid by the host government and at times given powerful government post apart from the citizenship. They are not discriminated at the workplace especially in German with most aged population since they are perceived as the key economic drivers. They are paid the same wage as any other national of the host country, and this shows they have integrated into the country’s economic system too. Some of them intermarry and acquire their citizenship out of marriage a common case with immigrant women.
E) The push and pull factors of migration for the groups that you selected in question
Pull factor for immigrants to the selected countries, German, France, and the UK, include the economic supremacy of those countries, the multi-cultural background, the political stability, the powerful education system. People from these nation have exact opposite conditions persisting in their home countries. For instance people from the Arab nations run from the unending war in the nations with rebel fighters, causing insecurity as they fight with the government as seen in (Kaplow para, 62015). The Same case is persistent in some African nation like the Syrian and Egypt and the Southern Sudan.
The push factors include the racial discrimination that citizens of the host countries show to immigrants. The situation makes the immigrants uncomfortable and may choose to move back to their countries but more frequently move to the alternative European nation with hospitality to the immigrant. With the shifting from manufacturing to a service economy in the UK most citizen in Britain lost their job. Immigrants could not get any jobs, and residents were dissatisfied with their presence. They would discriminate them, and this contributed to a decline in immigrants population in the UK it was also rare for an immigrant to get a decent job or even when they got the job they were paid lower than required. The old German population welcomes immigrants and gives them proper privileges apart from well-paying jobs. This could be attributed to the increased number of immigrant population in German.

2) A Compare and contrast the social conditions, economic opportunities, and political status of immigrants on both continents.
I would prefer to move to the USA due to its economic might; they are powerful when it comes to suppressing terrorist activities. They are capitalist and has diversified races, making it easy to secure opportunities as shown in (‘Migration and migrant….” N.d). The USA is rich and powerful that Europe and it gives a chance for immigrants to develop themselves. Europe is a large Union formed by most European countries hence more ideologies are European based, unlike in the USA more races interact. I prefer capitalistic economies than the socialist economies in Europe. Capitalistic economies give its member a chance to make wealth. It allows one to achieve self-fulfillment by improving their economic status in one’s best way. Socialist economies are based on social aspects, like a creation of wealth as a social contribution.
In conclusion, immigration is currently on the rise with increased economic problems and political instability across African content and the Middle East. German, Franc and the UK are the countries where most immigrants are hosted. They move to get better jobs, pursue their careers; they also seek to establish their life on secure nations. For instance has been rated as the nation with the largest population of Muslims. There is has been an increased phobia for Muslim person is due to links with terrorist activities, for instance, the recent suicide bombing that has occurred in France.
Work cited
Barry, A. (2012, May 25). Europe’s Dilemma: Immigration and the Arab Spring – FPIF. Retrieved November 17, 2015, from http://fpif.org/europes_dilemma_immigration_and_the_arab_spring/
Migration and migrant population statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2015, from HYPERLINK “http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-%09explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics” http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics
KAPLOW, L. (2015, September 2). Why Are Migrants Surging Into Europe Now? Retrieved November 17, 2015, from HYPERLINK “http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/09/02/436905795/why-are-migrants-surging-” http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/09/02/436905795/why-are-migrants-surging-into-europe-now