Ragnar Schuett

EC201- World Economic Issues

Broken down workers toil away in a dark basement of one building. In another building, down darkened corridors lies a bright room. Cameras on as two women writhe on a bed for another video headed for the pornography industry. Slaves of circumstance, their only desire was to have a better life. Instead they have wound up being pawns in a growing problem throughout the world. Illegal immigration has become an international problem, for the developed world in particular. It causes a variety problems for the target country as well as opening up human rights issues for those that risk traveling illegally to another nation.

The UACES Study Group at the University of Liverpool, England, defines illegal immigration, or migration, as �inter-country movements that do not abide by national laws and regulations�. (Leonard, pg 3, sec.2) It can cover a wide range of activities from merely overstaying one�s visa in another country to illegal residence and/or work. The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come from third world, or developing, nations and attempt entry to more economically developed nations. In places such as Africa, Asia or Latin America illegal immigrants tend to be uneducated and unskilled in labor. While there are obvious exceptions in these areas, similar to the more educated areas of the former Soviet republics, these individuals rarely work in their fields due to �human traffickers� placing them in other areas such as enforced prostitution and other growing �underground� economies. Enforcement of even basic immigration laws can be hard depending on the situation within the given country and the porous ness of its borders.

The economic strain on developed nations to control their national borders can vary depending on the size of that country�s national economy as well as the size of its borders. In a place such as South Africa, the border is patrolled but with an internal high crime rate, it isn�t given as much funding as needed to stem the tide of illegal immigration from Mozambique, Zambia or Zimbabwe. In areas of the former Warsaw Pact where border guards were used to keeping in their own populations with little threat of illegal, much less legal, immigration, funding and training of border guards has not kept pace with new situation. This winds up being a problem not just for those Eastern European countries involved, but also for the current �frontline� countries in the European Union such as Germany, Austria and Italy. Increasing costs and higher use of resources for those nations in regards to immigration enforcement, �Asylum hostels�, healthcare necessary for those illegal migrants as well as increased costs for businesses due to fines when they are found to be transporting or employing illegals are stretching some countries to their financial limits. Although illegal immigrants aren�t just a problem for �frontline� nations of the EU, Spain, France and Portugal also have problems with illegal entry on their sea borders. Once within the EU borders, illegal migrants can travel throughout the EU as it doesn�t have internal border controls. Illegal immigration has become a top priority to the EU, even as it is planning to expand to the former Warsaw Pact countries who�s problems are greatly amplified due to their lack of funding, experience and professionalism.

The United States isn�t in a much better place with a long contiguous border with Mexico. Since the mid-1960�s illegal immigration from Mexico and other nations has increased dramatically. Enforcement of immigration policies is lax at times with little hope of change. The sheer size of US borders makes full enforcement economically unviable. The amount of resources needed to enforce the borders would cut deep in other programs if instituted. Controversial programs such as �amnesty� for illegal immigrants that takes places every ten years or so, since 1986, can be more dangerous than helpful, except perhaps for the political party that granted them amnesty. Deportations, or repatriations, can be controversial due to the high cost of sending illegals back to their country of origin or a neutral third country and could endanger the lives of those sent away depending on the situation that they came from. High cost for deportation or dubious political solutions for intractable problems will have to play out in order to see their impact. The impact of illegal immigration can be felt immediately though by local communities that house them or border on areas of heavy migrant activity.

�Raus! Raus! Auslander raus!�, went the cry from citizens of Hoyerswerda, Germany in 1994. The Germany city of 44,000 rose up and said that they didn�t want anymore �Asylum hostels� of refugees, most being economic refugees rather than political. The city had been hit by a high crime wave that was unknown to this former East German city. In a controversial move the police and local government shut down all hostels for refugees in the city and ordered them out. Cameras watched as citizens cheered as buses and carloads of illegal migrants left the city. Something happened though that wasn�t expected with their departure, crime ranging from murder and rape to burgerly and simple theft went down 97%. While condemned internationally, the same happened in several other small towns and cities that followed the path of Hoyerswerda. Likewise on the US border with Mexico, crime rates in areas of heavier border enforcement, and more active deportation policies, dropped dramatically. While decried by human rights watchers and the Mexican government, crime rates in border towns such as San Diego, California and El Paso or Laredo, Texas went down in some cases as far as 87% within the first month. Although with the border as long as it is, illegal migrants began filtering through other areas such as Arizona or New Mexico. Crime in those areas began a sharp increase and continued up into places such as Utah. Crimes such as assault and crimes against children, including rape, went up with the arrival of illegal migrant. Drug and arms trafficking also went up in these areas where border enforcement was low. The violent nature of illegal immigration in this part of the American Southwest is more akin to a very low intensity war than mere migration of people attempting to work and scrap out a living. The cost to the individual taxpayer becomes higher in many respects.

Rising medical and education costs in the US are commonplace for the care we receive. In terms of illegals though, it is the taxpayer who bares the brunt of the cost for their treatment. Illegals that come here often send their children to school here, causing problems as schools scramble to meet the needs of their new students. This can cost the school district more tax dollars to hire bi-lingual teachers as they usually get paid more than a teacher that only speaks one language. Insurance is another area that has seen a steady rise due to accidents created by illegal migrants driving with no insurance. Higher police man-hours, which includes overtime, for enforcement of laws, including violations for DUI�s and drugs, is another additional cost to the taxpayer and goes hand-in-hand with more money going to jails and prisons when, as in Evans, Colorado, an illegal alien takes the life of a legal resident in a DUI related incident or other crime. It is ironic that in the US, where the heavy burden is on the taxpayer the government itself has blocked initiatives by citizens to curb state and national services to illegal aliens, minus emergency services which are available to all. The US is unique in that illegal immigration can have the definite possibility of fracturing this nation's self-image and cohesion.

In regards to illegal immigration, Mexicans make up an estimated 69% of all illegal migrants residing and working in this country. This dwarfs all other groups (El Salvadorans is the next highest but make up only 6.7% of total number), including when it comes to its cohesion with much of the Mexican-American community. This group in particular is least likely to assimilate to the US. When protests against California�s Proposition 187 began television screens weren�t greeted with the typical flag waving that they were used to. Thousands of Hispanics protested the proposition and went to the streets, except that the flag that they were waving wasn�t the US flag but the Mexican national colors. Likewise with the World Cup games that were held in Los Angeles in 1998, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans �booed the playing of the US national anthem and assaulted US players� (Huntington, pg 8) and helped create an environment in which �Anglo-Americans� were attacked at will. This identification of illegal immigrants with a much larger resident population makes immigration enforcement harder, if not impossible, in numerous areas where they can both blend in and be shielded from authorities by local populations that are sympathetic to them. This situation is unique to the US not just due to illegal migrants flocking to a �parent community� but also just the sheer size and scope of the problem. It challenges not just the enforcement of existing immigration law but the culture of the �American Experience� as a whole, and all at the expense of the US taxpayer. Although with heavier enforcement of the borders of the developed world increasing, many migrants have chosen �human traffickers� as a means to get where they want to go.

Police open a rail car in Dallas, Texas. The stench of death sickens officers at the scene. Forty Mexicans died in the locked rail car which was nearly air tight in the 100 degree heat. This while in Frankfurt, Germany police raid two buildings and uncover over 120 women destined for the sex industry throughout Western Europe and North America. The trafficking of human beings is nothing new and goes back as far as there has been a slave trade. Trafficking and smuggling of humans is illegal within the developed world, although with the varying degree of development and training of border guards enforcement can be a shaky affair at best. Enforcement even in places such as the front line nations Germany or US where they have certain advantages due to technology have problems. Traffickers charge high rates to those people they are transporting with little or no guaranty of success. Rates, especially for women, can change with no notice due to risk or merely at the transporter�s whim. It isn�t uncommon for a woman to find out once she�s arrived where ever the price is twice what she thought and gets shunted into the sex trade as a prostitute, dancer or likewise. Those that don�t like it can be beaten severely, raped into submission or even murdered and dumped somewhere like yesterday�s garbage. The places of their arrival can vary from Houston or LA, to Seoul, Barcelona or Tel Aviv, but their story remains the same. It is not uncommon for numerous deaths, including on mass scale sometimes, to occur during travel due to the cruelty or negligence of the traffickers involved. This growing �industry� is being run more and more by organized criminal gangs. Russian, Albanian, Israeli, Korean, Chinese and Japanese ethnic gangs are edging in on what, in the US, Canada and the UK, had been a more individual enterprise. Links with drug cartels are also beginning to become commonplace and it becomes hard to differentiate between the two clearly as both go hand in hand. This makes it more dangerous for law enforcement as this �industry� matures and becomes more heavily armed and violent in regards to protecting their interests. Shootouts with authorities have happened in Southern Europe and along the US-Mexican border when law enforcement of some form attempts to intervene. Although even calm places such as Japan have had occasional shoot outs. These aren�t the only problems for illegal migrants other issues emerge...

An abandoned apartment building in Milan burns out of control, the source of the fire is unknown. Inside, twelve illegal workers from Africa and Asia loose their lives. When these migrants arrive in their new host nation, they tend to congregate in areas with substandard conditions. Abandoned buildings with all sorts of problems and overcrowding can result in greater health risks and problems along with an increase in crime in local areas as these illegals attempt to make a living. Health risks are one of the biggest risks and followed up with the lack of safety precautions that are in place in most buildings (i.e.: working fire alarms/sprinkler systems, etc). All of this winds up being a human catastrophe for all involved, although the degree of caring varies depending on the role of the individuals/groups involved.

Illegal immigration has become an international problem, especially for the developed world. It causes a variety problems for the target country as well as opening up human rights issues for those that risk traveling illegally to another nation. Problems that have yet to be fully addressed.

Sources:

Huntington, Samuel, �The Hispanic Challenge�, Foreign Policy Journal, March/April 2004

Leonard, Sarah, �The EU Fight Against Illegal Migration and the Eastward Enlargement�, UACES Study Group, University of Liverpool, 5 Dec 2003

�Illegal Immigration�, NumbersUSA, 2004