migration essay high school

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Student Writing Contest

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Eight brilliant student essays on immigration and unjust assumptions.

Read winning essays from our winter 2019 “Border (In)Security” student writing contest.

For the winter 2019 student writing competition, “Border (In)Security,” we invited students to read the YES! Magazine article “Two-Thirds of Americans Live in the “Constitution-Free Zone” by Lornet Turnbull and respond with an up-to-700-word essay.

Students had a choice between two writing prompts for this contest on immigration policies at the border and in the “Constitution-free zone,” a 100-mile perimeter from land and sea borders where U.S. Border Patrol can search any vehicle, bus, or vessel without a warrant. They could state their positions on the impact of immigration policies on our country’s security and how we determine who is welcome to live here. Or they could write about a time when someone made an unfair assumption about them, just as Border Patrol agents have made warrantless searches of Greyhound passengers based simply on race and clothing.

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these eight were chosen as winners. Be sure to read the author’s response to the essay winners and the literary gems that caught our eye.

Middle School Winner: Alessandra Serafini

High School Winner: Cain Trevino

High School Winner: Ethan Peter

University Winner: Daniel Fries

Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Hernandez-Sanchez

Powerful Voice Winner: Tiara Lewis

Powerful Voice Winner: Hailee Park

Powerful Voice Winner: Aminata Toure

From the Author Lornet Turnbull

Literary Gems

Middle school winner.

Alessandra Serafini

Brier Terrace Middle School, Brier, Wash.

Broken Promises

“…Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

These words were written by Emma Lazarus and are inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty. And yet, the very door they talk about is no longer available to those who need it the most. The door has been shut, chained, and guarded. It no longer shines like gold. Those seeking asylum are being turned away. Families are being split up; children are being stranded. The promise America made to those in need is broken.

Not only is the promise to asylum seekers broken, but the promises made to some 200 million people already residing within the U.S. are broken, too. Anyone within 100 miles of the United States border lives in the “Constitution-free zone” and can be searched with “reasonable suspicion,” a suspicion that is determined by Border Patrol officers. The zone encompasses major cities, such as Seattle and New York City, and it even covers entire states, such as Florida, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. I live in the Seattle area, and it is unsettling that I can be searched and interrogated without the usual warrant. In these areas, there has been an abuse of power; people have been unlawfully searched and interrogated because of assumed race or religion.

The ACLU obtained data from the Customs and Border Protection Agency that demonstrate this reprehensible profiling. The data found that “82 percent of foreign citizens stopped by agents in that state are Latino, and almost 1 in 3 of those processed are, in fact, U.S. citizens.” These warrantless searches impede the trust-building process and communication between the local population and law enforcement officers. Unfortunately, this lack of trust makes campaigns, such as Homeland Security’s “If You See Something, Say Something,” ineffective due to the actions of the department’s own members and officers. Worst of all, profiling ostracizes entire communities and makes them feel unsafe in their own country.

Ironically, asylum seekers come to America in search of safety. However, the thin veil of safety has been drawn back, and, behind it, our tarnished colors are visible. We need to welcome people in their darkest hours rather than destroy their last bit of hope by slamming the door in their faces. The immigration process is currently in shambles, and an effective process is essential for both those already in the country and those outside of it. Many asylum seekers are running from war, poverty, hunger, and death. Their countries’ instability has hijacked every aspect of their lives, made them vagabonds, and the possibility of death, a cruel and unforgiving death, is real. They see no future for their children, and they are desperate for the perceived promise of America—a promise of opportunity, freedom, and a safe future. An effective process would determine who actually needs help and then grant them passage into America. Why should everyone be turned away? My grandmother immigrated to America from Scotland in 1955. I exist because she had a chance that others are now being denied.

Emma Lazarus named Lady Liberty the “Mother of Exiles.” Why are we denying her the happiness of children? Because we cannot decide which ones? America has an inexplicable area where our constitution has been spurned and forgotten. Additionally, there is a rancorous movement to close our southern border because of a deep-rooted fear of immigrants and what they represent. For too many Americans, they represent the end of established power and white supremacy, which is their worst nightmare. In fact, immigrants do represent change—healthy change—with new ideas and new energy that will help make this country stronger. Governmental agreement on a humane security plan is critical to ensure that America reaches its full potential. We can help. We can help people in unimaginably terrifying situations, and that should be our America.

Alessandra Serafini plays on a national soccer team for Seattle United and is learning American Sign Language outside of school. Her goal is to spread awareness about issues such as climate change, poverty, and large-scale political conflict through writing and public speaking.

High School Winner

Cain Trevino

North Side High School, Fort Worth, Texas

Xenophobia and the Constitution-Free Zone

In August of 2017, U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded a Greyhound bus that had just arrived at the White River Junction station from Boston. According to Danielle Bonadona, a Lebanon resident and a bus passenger, “They wouldn’t let us get off. They boarded the bus and told us they needed to see our IDs or papers.” Bonadona, a 29-year-old American citizen, said that the agents spent around 20 minutes on the bus and “only checked the IDs of people who had accents or were not white.” Bonadona said she was aware of the 100-mile rule, but the experience of being stopped and searched felt “pretty unconstitutional.”

In the YES! article “Two-Thirds of Americans Live in the ‘Constitution-Free Zone’” by Lornet Turnbull, the author references the ACLU’s argument that “the 100-mile zone violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.” However, the Supreme Court upholds the use of immigration checkpoints for inquiries on citizenship status. In my view, the ACLU makes a reasonable argument. The laws of the 100-mile zone are blurred, and, too often, officials give arbitrary reasons to conduct a search. Xenophobia and fear of immigrants burgeons in cities within these areas. People of color and those with accents or who are non-English speakers are profiled by law enforcement agencies that enforce anti-immigrant policies. The “Constitution-free zone” is portrayed as an effective barrier to secure our borders. However, this anti-immigrant zone does not make our country any safer. In fact, it does the opposite.

As a former student from the Houston area, I can tell you that the Constitution-free zone makes immigrants and citizens alike feel on edge. The Department of Homeland Security’s white SUVs patrol our streets. Even students feel the weight of anti-immigrant laws. Dennis Rivera Sarmiento, an undocumented student who attended Austin High School in Houston, was held by school police in February 2018 for a minor altercation and was handed over to county police. He was later picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and held in a detention center. It is unfair that kids like Dennis face much harsher consequences for minor incidents than other students with citizenship.

These instances are a direct result of anti-immigrant laws. For example, the 287(g) program gives local and state police the authority to share individuals’ information with ICE after an arrest. This means that immigrants can be deported for committing misdemeanors as minor as running a red light. Other laws like Senate Bill 4, passed by the Texas Legislature, allow police to ask people about their immigration status after they are detained. These policies make immigrants and people of color feel like they’re always under surveillance and that, at any moment, they may be pulled over to be questioned and detained.

During Hurricane Harvey, the immigrant community was hesitant to go to the shelters because images of immigration authorities patrolling the area began to surface online. It made them feel like their own city was against them at a time when they needed them most. Constitution-free zones create communities of fear. For many immigrants, the danger of being questioned about immigration status prevents them from reporting crimes, even when they are the victim. Unreported crime only places more groups of people at risk and, overall, makes communities less safe.

In order to create a humane immigration process, citizens and non-citizens must hold policymakers accountable and get rid of discriminatory laws like 287(g) and Senate Bill 4. Abolishing the Constitution-free zone will also require pressure from the public and many organizations. For a more streamlined legal process, the League of United Latin American Citizens suggests background checks and a small application fee for incoming immigrants, as well as permanent resident status for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients. Other organizations propose expanding the green card lottery and asylum for immigrants escaping the dangers of their home countries.

Immigrants who come to the U.S. are only looking for an opportunity to provide for their families and themselves; so, the question of deciding who gets inside the border and who doesn’t is the same as trying to prove some people are worth more than others. The narratives created by anti-immigrant media plant the false idea that immigrants bring nothing but crime and terrorism. Increased funding for the border and enforcing laws like 287(g) empower anti-immigrant groups to vilify immigrants and promote a witch hunt that targets innocent people. This hatred and xenophobia allow law enforcement to ask any person of color or non-native English speaker about their citizenship or to detain a teenager for a minor incident. Getting rid of the 100-mile zone means standing up for justice and freedom because nobody, regardless of citizenship, should have to live under laws created from fear and hatred.

Cain Trevino is a sophomore. Cain is proud of his Mexican and Salvadorian descent and is an advocate for the implementation of Ethnic Studies in Texas. He enjoys basketball, playing the violin, and studying c omputer science. Cain plans to pursue a career in engineering at Stanford University and later earn a PhD.

High School Winner

Ethan Peter

Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

I’m an expert on bussing. For the past couple of months, I’ve been a busser at a pizza restaurant near my house. It may not be the most glamorous job, but it pays all right, and, I’ll admit, I’m in it for the money.

I arrive at 5 p.m. and inspect the restaurant to ensure it is in pristine condition for the 6 p.m. wave of guests. As customers come and go, I pick up their dirty dishes, wash off their tables, and reset them for the next guests. For the first hour of my shift, the work is fairly straightforward.

I met another expert on bussing while crossing the border in a church van two years ago. Our van arrived at the border checkpoint, and an agent stopped us. She read our passports, let us through, and moved on to her next vehicle. The Border Patrol agent’s job seemed fairly straightforward.

At the restaurant, 6 p.m. means a rush of customers. It’s the end of the workday, and these folks are hungry for our pizzas and salads. My job is no longer straightforward.

Throughout the frenzy, the TVs in the restaurant buzz about waves of people coming to the U.S. border. The peaceful ebb and flow enjoyed by Border agents is disrupted by intense surges of immigrants who seek to enter the U.S. Outside forces push immigrants to the United States: wars break out in the Middle East, gangs terrorize parts of Central and South America, and economic downturns force foreigners to look to the U.S., drawn by the promise of opportunity. Refugees and migrant caravans arrive, and suddenly, a Border Patrol agent’s job is no longer straightforward.

I turn from the TVs in anticipation of a crisis exploding inside the restaurant: crowds that arrive together will leave together. I’ve learned that when a table looks finished with their dishes, I need to proactively ask to take those dishes, otherwise, I will fall behind, and the tables won’t be ready for the next customers. The challenge is judging who is finished eating. I’m forced to read clues and use my discretion.

Interpreting clues is part of a Border Patrol agent’s job, too. Lornet Turnbull states, “For example, CBP data obtained by ACLU in Michigan shows that 82 percent of foreign citizens stopped by agents in that state are Latino, and almost 1 in 3 of those processed is, in fact, a U.S. citizen.” While I try to spot customers done with their meals so I can clear their part of the table, the Border Patrol officer uses clues to detect undocumented immigrants. We both sometimes guess incorrectly, but our intentions are to do our jobs to the best of our abilities.

These situations are uncomfortable. I certainly do not enjoy interrupting a conversation to get someone’s dishes, and I doubt Border Patrol agents enjoy interrogating someone about their immigration status. In both situations, the people we mistakenly ask lose time and are subjected to awkward and uncomfortable situations. However, here’s where the busser and the Border Patrol officer’s situations are different: If I make a mistake, the customer faces a minor inconvenience. The stakes for a Border Patrol agent are much higher. Mistakenly asking for documentation and searching someone can lead to embarrassment or fear—it can even be life-changing. Thus, Border Patrol agents must be fairly certain that someone’s immigration status is questionable before they begin their interrogation.

To avoid these situations altogether, the U.S. must make the path to citizenship for immigrants easier. This is particularly true for immigrants fleeing violence. Many people object to this by saying these immigrants will bring violence with them, but data does not support this view. In 1939, a ship of Jewish refugees from Germany was turned away from the U.S.—a decision viewed negatively through the lens of history. Today, many people advocate restricting immigration for refugees from violent countries; they refuse to learn the lessons from 1939. The sad thing is that many of these immigrants are seen as just as violent as the people they are fleeing. We should not confuse the oppressed with the oppressor.

My restaurant appreciates customers because they bring us money, just as we should appreciate immigrants because they bring us unique perspectives. Equally important, immigrants provide this country with a variety of expert ideas and cultures, which builds better human connections and strengthens our society.

Ethan Peter is a junior. Ethan writes for his school newspaper, The Kirkwood Call, and plays volleyball for his high school and a club team. He hopes to continue to grow as a writer in the future.

University Winner

Daniel Fries

Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

Detained on the Road to Equality

The United States is a nation of immigrants. There are currently 43 million foreign-born people living in the U.S. Millions of them are naturalized American citizens, and 23 million, or 7.2 percent of the population, are living here without documentation (US Census, 2016). One in seven residents of the United States was not born here. Multiculturalism is, and always has been, a key part of the American experience. However, romantic notions of finding a better life in the United States for immigrants and refugees don’t reflect reality. In modern history, America is a country that systematically treats immigrants—documented or not—and non-white Americans in a way that is fundamentally different than what is considered right by the majority.

The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment states,“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” When a suspected undocumented immigrant is detained, their basic human rights are violated. Warrantless raids on Greyhound buses within 100 miles of the border (an area referred to by some as the “Constitution-free zone”) are clear violations of human rights. These violations are not due to the current state of politics; they are the symptom of blatant racism in the United States and a system that denigrates and abuses people least able to defend themselves.

It is not surprising that some of the mechanisms that drive modern American racism are political in nature. Human beings are predisposed to dislike and distrust individuals that do not conform to the norms of their social group (Mountz, Allison). Some politicians appeal to this suspicion and wrongly attribute high crime rates to non-white immigrants. The truth is that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. In fact, people born in the United States are convicted of crimes at a rate twice that of undocumented non-natives (Cato Institute, 2018).

The majority of immigrants take high risks to seek a better life, giving them incentive to obey the laws of their new country. In many states, any contact with law enforcement may ultimately result in deportation and separation from family. While immigrants commit far fewer crimes, fear of violent crime by much of the U.S. population outweighs the truth. For some politicians, it is easier to sell a border wall to a scared population than it is to explain the need for reformed immigration policy. It’s easier to say that immigrants are taking people’s jobs than explain a changing global economy and its effect on employment. The only crime committed in this instance is discrimination.

Human rights are violated when an undocumented immigrant—or someone perceived as an undocumented immigrant—who has not committed a crime is detained on a Greyhound bus. When a United States citizen is detained on the same bus, constitutional rights are being violated. The fact that this happens every day and that we debate its morality makes it abundantly clear that racism is deeply ingrained in this country. Many Americans who have never experienced this type of oppression lack the capacity to understand its lasting effect. Most Americans don’t know what it’s like to be late to work because they were wrongfully detained, were pulled over by the police for the third time that month for no legal reason, or had to coordinate legal representation for their U.S. citizen grandmother because she was taken off a bus for being a suspected undocumented immigrant. This oppression is cruel and unnecessary.

America doesn’t need a wall to keep out undocumented immigrants; it needs to seriously address how to deal with immigration. It is possible to reform the current system in such a way that anyone can become a member of American society, instead of existing outside of it. If a person wants to live in the United States and agrees to follow its laws and pay its taxes, a path to citizenship should be available.

People come to the U.S. from all over the world for many reasons. Some have no other choice. There are ongoing humanitarian crises in Syria, Yemen, and South America that are responsible for the influx of immigrants and asylum seekers at our borders. If the United States wants to address the current situation, it must acknowledge the global factors affecting the immigrants at the center of this debate and make fact-informed decisions. There is a way to maintain the security of America while treating migrants and refugees compassionately, to let those who wish to contribute to our society do so, and to offer a hand up instead of building a wall.

Daniel Fries studies computer science. Daniel has served as a wildland firefighter in Oregon, California, and Alaska. He is passionate about science, nature, and the ways that technology contributes to making the world a better, more empathetic, and safer place.

Powerful Voice Winner

Emma Hernandez-Sanchez

Wellness, Business and Sports School, Woodburn, Ore.

An Emotion an Immigrant Knows Too Well

Before Donald Trump’s campaign, I was oblivious to my race and the idea of racism. As far as I knew, I was the same as everyone else. I didn’t stop to think about our different-colored skins. I lived in a house with a family and attended school five days a week just like everyone else. So, what made me different?

Seventh grade was a very stressful year—the year that race and racism made an appearance in my life. It was as if a cold splash of water woke me up and finally opened my eyes to what the world was saying. It was this year that Donald Trump started initiating change about who got the right to live in this country and who didn’t. There was a lot of talk about deportation, specifically for Mexicans, and it sparked commotion and fear in me.

I remember being afraid and nervous to go out. At home, the anxiety was there but always at the far back of my mind because I felt safe inside. My fear began as a small whisper, but every time I stepped out of my house, it got louder. I would have dreams about the deportation police coming to my school; when I went to places like the library, the park, the store, or the mall, I would pay attention to everyone and to my surroundings. In my head, I would always ask myself, “Did they give us nasty looks?,” “Why does it seem quieter?” “Was that a cop I just saw?” I would notice little things, like how there were only a few Mexicans out or how empty a store was. When my mom went grocery shopping, I would pray that she would be safe. I was born in America, and both my parents were legally documented. My mom was basically raised here. Still, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.

I knew I shouldn’t have been afraid, but with one look, agents could have automatically thought my family and I were undocumented. Even when the deportation police would figure out that we weren’t undocumented, they’d still figure out a way to deport us—at least that was what was going through my head. It got so bad that I didn’t even want to do the simplest things like go grocery shopping because there was a rumor that the week before a person was taken from Walmart.

I felt scared and nervous, and I wasn’t even undocumented. I can’t even imagine how people who are undocumented must have felt, how they feel. All I can think is that it’s probably ten times worse than what I was feeling. Always worrying about being deported and separated from your family must be hard. I was living in fear, and I didn’t even have it that bad. My heart goes out to families that get separated from each other. It’s because of those fears that I detest the “Constitution-free zone.”

Legally documented and undocumented people who live in the Constitution-free zone are in constant fear of being deported. People shouldn’t have to live this way. In fact, there have been arguments that the 100-mile zone violates the Fourth Amendment, which gives people the right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures of property by the government. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently upheld these practices.

One question that Lornet Turnbull asks in her YES! article “Two-Thirds of Americans Live in the ‘Constitution-Free Zone’” is, “How should we decide who is welcome in the U.S and who is not?” Instead of focusing on immigrants, how about we focus on the people who shoot up schools, rape girls, exploit women for human sex trafficking, and sell drugs? These are the people who make our country unsafe; they are the ones who shouldn’t be accepted. Even if they are citizens and have the legal right to live here, they still shouldn’t be included. If they are the ones making this country unsafe, then what gives them the right to live here?

I don’t think that the Constitution-free zone is an effective and justifiable way to make this country more “secure.” If someone isn’t causing any trouble in the United States and is just simply living their life, then they should be welcomed here. We shouldn’t have to live in fear that our rights will be taken away. I believe that it’s unfair for people to automatically think that it’s the Hispanics that make this country unsafe. Sure, get all the undocumented people out of the United States, but it’s not going to make this country any safer. It is a society that promotes violence that makes us unsafe, not a race.

Emma Hernandez-Sanchez is a freshman who is passionate about literature and her education. Emma wan ts to inspire others to be creative and try their best. She enjoys reading and creating stories that spark imagination.

Powerful Voice Winner

Tiara Lewis

Columbus City Preparatory Schools for Girls,

Columbus, Ohio

Hold Your Head High and Keep Those Fists Down

How would you feel if you walked into a store and salespeople were staring at you? Making you feel like you didn’t belong. Judging you. Assuming that you were going to take something, even though you might have $1,000 on you to spend. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. This is because people will always judge you. It might not be because of your race but for random reasons, like because your hair is black instead of dirty blonde. Or because your hair is short and not long. Or just because they are having a bad day. People will always find ways to bring you down and accuse you of something, but that doesn’t mean you have to go along with it.

Every time I entered a store, I would change my entire personality. I would change the way I talked and the way I walked. I always saw myself as needing to fit in. If a store was all pink, like the store Justice, I would act like a girly girl. If I was shopping in a darker store, like Hot Topic, I would hum to the heavy metal songs and act more goth. I had no idea that I was feeding into stereotypes.

When I was 11, I walked into Claire’s, a well-known store at the mall. That day was my sister’s birthday. Both of us were really happy and had money to spend. As soon as we walked into the store, two employees stared me and my sister down, giving us cold looks. When we went to the cashier to buy some earrings, we thought everything was fine. However, when we walked out of the store, there was a policeman and security guards waiting. At that moment, my sister and I looked at one another, and I said, in a scared little girl voice, “I wonder what happened? Why are they here?”

Then, they stopped us. We didn’t know what was going on. The same employee that cashed us out was screaming as her eyes got big, “What did you steal?” I was starting to get numb. Me and my sister looked at each other and told the truth: “We didn’t steal anything. You can check us.” They rudely ripped through our bags and caused a big scene. My heart was pounding like a drum. I felt violated and scared. Then, the policeman said, “Come with us. We need to call your parents.” While this was happening, the employees were talking to each other, smiling. We got checked again. The police said that they were going to check the cameras, but after they were done searching us, they realized that we didn’t do anything wrong and let us go about our day.

Walking in the mall was embarrassing—everybody staring, looking, and whispering as we left the security office. This made me feel like I did something wrong while knowing I didn’t. We went back to the store to get our shopping bags. The employees sneered, “Don’t you niggers ever come in this store again. You people always take stuff. This time you just got lucky.” Their faces were red and frightening. It was almost like they were in a scary 3D movie, screaming, and coming right at us. I felt hurt and disappointed that someone had the power within them to say something so harsh and wrong to another person. Those employees’ exact words will forever be engraved in my memory.

In the article, “Two-Thirds of Americans Live in the ‘Constitution-Free Zone’,” Lornet Turnbull states, “In January, they stopped a man in Indio, California, as he was boarding a Los Angeles-bound bus. While questioning this man about his immigration status, agents told him his ‘shoes looked suspicious,’ like those of someone who had recently crossed the border.” They literally judged him by his shoes. They had no proof of anything. If a man is judged by his shoes, who else and what else are being judged in the world?

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird , a character named Atticus states, “You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t you let’em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change.” No matter how much you might try to change yourself, your hairstyle, and your clothes, people will always make assumptions about you. However, you never need to change yourself to make a point or to feel like you fit in. Be yourself. Don’t let those stereotypes turn into facts.

Tiara Lewis is in the eighth grade. Tiara plays the clarinet and is trying to change the world— one essay at a time. She is most often found curled up on her bed, “Divergent” in one hand and a cream-filled doughnut in the other.

Hailee Park

Wielding My Swords

If I were a swordsman, my weapons would be my identities. I would wield one sword in my left hand and another in my right. People expect me to use both fluently, but I’m not naturally ambidextrous. Even though I am a right-handed swordsman, wielding my dominant sword with ease, I must also carry a sword in my left, the heirloom of my family heritage. Although I try to live up to others’ expectations by using both swords, I may appear inexperienced while attempting to use my left. In some instances, my heirloom is mistaken for representing different families’ since the embellishments look similar.

Many assumptions are made about my heirloom sword based on its appearance, just as many assumptions are made about me based on my physical looks. “Are you Chinese?” When I respond with ‘no,’ they stare at me blankly in confusion. There is a multitude of Asian cultures in the United States, of which I am one. Despite what many others may assume, I am not Chinese; I am an American-born Korean.

“Then… are you Japanese?” Instead of asking a broader question, like “What is your ethnicity?,” they choose to ask a direct question. I reply that I am Korean. I like to think that this answers their question sufficiently; however, they think otherwise. Instead, I take this as their invitation to a duel.

They attack me with another question: “Are you from North Korea or South Korea?” I don’t know how to respond because I’m not from either of those countries; I was born in America. I respond with “South Korea,” where my parents are from because I assume that they’re asking me about my ethnicity. I’m not offended by this situation because I get asked these questions frequently. From this experience, I realize that people don’t know how to politely ask questions about identity to those unlike them. Instead of asking “What is your family’s ethnicity?,” many people use rude alternatives, such as “Where are you from?,” or “What language do you speak?”

When people ask these questions, they make assumptions based on someone’s appearance. In my case, people make inferences like:

“She must be really good at speaking Korean.”

“She’s Asian; therefore, she must be born in Asia.”

“She’s probably Chinese.”

These thoughts may appear in their heads because making assumptions is natural. However, there are instances when assumptions can be taken too far. Some U.S. Border Patrol agents in the “Constitution-free zone” have made similar assumptions based on skin color and clothing. For example, agents marked someone as an undocumented immigrant because “his shoes looked suspicious, like those of someone who had recently crossed the border.”

Another instance was when a Jamaican grandmother was forced off a bus when she was visiting her granddaughter. The impetus was her accent and the color of her skin. Government officials chose to act on their assumptions, even though they had no solid proof that the grandmother was an undocumented immigrant. These situations just touch the surface of the issue of racial injustice in America.

When someone makes unfair assumptions about me, they are pointing their sword and challenging me to a duel; I cannot refuse because I am already involved. It is not appropriate for anyone, including Border Patrol agents, to make unjustified assumptions or to act on those assumptions. Border Patrol agents have no right to confiscate the swords of the innocent solely based on their conjectures. The next time I’m faced with a situation where racially ignorant assumptions are made about me, I will refuse to surrender my sword, point it back at them, and triumphantly fight their ignorance with my cultural pride.

Hailee Park is an eighth grader who enjoys reading many genres. While reading, Hailee recognized the racial injustices against immigrants in America, which inspired her essay. Hailee plays violin in her school’s orchestra and listens to and composes music.

Aminata Toure

East Harlem School, New York City, N.Y.

We Are Still Dreaming

As a young Muslim American woman, I have been labeled things I am not: a terrorist, oppressed, and an ISIS supporter. I have been accused of planning 9/11, an event that happened before I was born. Lately, in the media, Muslims have been portrayed as supporters of a malevolent cause, terrorizing others just because they do not have the same beliefs. I often scoff at news reports that portray Muslims in such a light, just as I scoff at all names I’ve been labeled. They are words that do not define me.

In a land where labels have stripped immigrants of their personalities, they are now being stripped of something that makes them human: their rights. The situation described in Lornet Turnbull’s article, “Two-Thirds of Americans are Living in the ‘Constitution-Free Zone’,” goes directly against the Constitution, the soul of this country, something that asserts that we are all equal before the law. If immigrants do not have protection from the Constitution, is there any way to feel safe?

Although most insults are easy to shrug off, they are still threatening. I am ashamed when I feel afraid to go to the mosque. Friday is an extremely special day when we gather together to pray, but lately, I haven’t been going to the mosque for Jummah prayers. I have realized that I can never feel safe when in a large group of Muslims because of the widespread hatred of Muslims in the United States, commonly referred to as Islamophobia. Police surround our mosque, and there are posters warning us about dangerous people who might attack our place of worship because we have been identified as terrorists.

I wish I could tune out every news report that blasts out the headline “Terrorist Attack!” because I know that I will be judged based on the actions of someone else. Despite this anti-Muslim racism, what I have learned from these insults is that I am proud of my faith. I am a Muslim, but being Muslim doesn’t define me. I am a writer, a student, a dreamer, a friend, a New Yorker, a helper, and an American. I am unapologetically me, a Muslim, and so much more. I definitely think everyone should get to know a Muslim. They would see that some of us are also Harry Potter fans, not just people planning to bomb the White House.

Labels are unjustly placed on us because of the way we speak, the color of our skin, and what we believe in—not for who we are as individuals. Instead, we should all take more time to get to know one another. As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his “I Have a Dream” speech, we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. To me, it seems Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream is a dream that should be a reality. But, for now, we are dreaming.

Aminata Toure is a Guinean American Muslim student. Aminata loves spoken-word poetry and performs in front of hundreds of people at her school’s annual poetry slam. She loves writing, language, history, and West African food and culture. Aminata wants to work at the United Nations when she grows up.

From the Author

Dear Alessandra, Cain, Daniel, Tiara, Emma, Hailee, Aminata and Ethan,

I am moved and inspired by the thought each of you put into your responses to my story about this so-called “Constitution-free zone.” Whether we realize it or not, immigration in this country impacts all of us— either because we are immigrants ourselves, have neighbors, friends, and family who are, or because we depend on immigrants for many aspects of our lives—from the food we put on our tables to the technology that bewitches us. It is true that immigrants enrich our society in so many important ways, as many of you point out.

And while the federal statute that permits U.S. Border Patrol officers to stop and search at will any of the 200 million of us in this 100-mile shadow border, immigrants have been their biggest targets. In your essays, you highlight how unjust the law is—nothing short of racial profiling. It is heartening to see each of you, in your own way, speaking out against the unfairness of this practice.

Alessandra, you are correct, the immigration system in this country is in shambles. You make a powerful argument about how profiling ostracizes entire communities and how the warrantless searches allowed by this statute impede trust-building between law enforcement and the people they are called on to serve.

And Cain, you point out how this 100-mile zone, along with other laws in the state of Texas where you attended school, make people feel like they’re “always under surveillance, and that, at any moment, you may be pulled over to be questioned and detained.” It seems unimaginable that people live their lives this way, yet millions in this country do.

You, Emma, for example, speak of living in a kind of silent fear since Donald Trump took office, even though you were born in this country and your parents are here legally. You are right, “We shouldn’t have to live in fear that our rights will be taken away.”

And Aminata, you write of being constantly judged and labeled because you’re a Muslim American. How unfortunate and sad that in a country that generations of people fled to search for religious freedom, you are ashamed at times to practice your own. The Constitution-free zone, you write, “goes directly against the Constitution, the soul of this country, something that asserts that we are all equal before the law.”

Tiara, I could personally relate to your gripping account of being racially profiled and humiliated in a store. You were appalled that the Greyhound passenger in California was targeted by Border Patrol because they claimed his shoes looked like those of someone who had walked across the border: “If a man is judged by his shoes,” you ask, “who else and what else are getting judged in the world?”

Hailee, you write about the incorrect assumptions people make about you, an American born of Korean descent, based solely on your appearance and compared it to the assumptions Border Patrol agents make about those they detain in this zone.

Daniel, you speak of the role of political fearmongering in immigration. It’s not new, but under the current administration, turning immigrants into boogiemen for political gain is currency. You write that “For some politicians, it is easier to sell a border wall to a scared population than it is to explain the need for reformed immigration policy.”

And Ethan, you recognize the contributions immigrants make to this country through the connections we all make with them and the strength they bring to our society.

Keep speaking your truth. Use your words and status to call out injustice wherever and whenever you see it. Untold numbers of people spoke out against this practice by Border Patrol and brought pressure on Greyhound to change. In December, the company began offering passengers written guidance—in both Spanish and English—so they understand what their rights are when officers board their bus. Small steps, yes, but progress nonetheless, brought about by people just like you, speaking up for those who sometimes lack a voice to speak up for themselves.

With sincere gratitude,

Lornet Turnbull

Lornet Turnbull is an editor for YES! and a Seattle-based freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter @TurnbullL .

We received many outstanding essays for the Winter 2019 Student Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye:

After my parents argued with the woman, they told me if you can fight with fists, you prove the other person’s point, but when you fight with the power of your words, you can have a much bigger impact. I also learned that I should never be ashamed of where I am from. —Fernando Flores, The East Harlem School, New York City, N.Y.

Just because we were born here and are privileged to the freedom of our country, we do not have the right to deprive others of a chance at success. —Avalyn Cox, Brier Terrace Middle School, Brier, Wash.

Maybe, rather than a wall, a better solution to our immigration problem would be a bridge. —Sean Dwyer, Lane Community College, Eugene, Ore.

If anything, what I’ve learned is that I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to change our world. I don’t know how to make a difference, how to make my voice heard. But I have learned the importance of one word, a simple two-letter word that’s taught to the youngest of us, a word we all know but never recognize: the significance of ‘we.’ —Enna Chiu, Highland Park High School, Highland Park, N.J.

Not to say the Border Patrol should not have authorization to search people within the border, but I am saying it should be near the border, more like one mile, not 100. —Cooper Tarbuck, Maranacook Middle School, Manchester, Maine.

My caramel color, my feminism, my Spanish and English language, my Mexican culture, and my young Latina self gives me the confidence to believe in myself, but it can also teach others that making wrong assumptions about someone because of their skin color, identity, culture, looks or gender can make them look and be weaker. —Ana Hernandez, The East Harlem School, New York City, N.Y.

We don’t need to change who we are to fit these stereotypes like someone going on a diet to fit into a new pair of pants. —Kaylee Meyers, Brier Terrace Middle School, Brier, Wash.

If a human being with no criminal background whatsoever has trouble entering the country because of the way he or she dresses or speaks, border protection degenerates into arbitrariness. —Jonas Schumacher, Heidelberg University of Education, Heidelberg, Germany

I believe that you should be able to travel freely throughout your own country without the constant fear of needing to prove that you belong here . —MacKenzie Morgan, Lincoln Middle School, Ypsilanti, Mich.

America is known as “the Land of Opportunity,” but this label is quickly disappearing. If we keep stopping those striving for a better life, then what will become of this country? —Ennyn Chiu, Highland Park Middle School, Highland Park, N.J.

The fact that two-thirds of the people in the U.S. are living in an area called the “Constitution-free zone” is appalling. Our Constitution was made to protect our rights as citizens, no matter where we are in the country. These systems that we are using to “secure” our country are failing, and we need to find a way to change them. —Isis Liaw, Brier Terrace Middle School, Brier, Wash.

I won’t let anyone, especially a man, tell me what I can do, because I am a strong Latina. I will represent where I come from, and I am proud to be Mexican. I will show others that looks can be deceiving. I will show others that even the weakest animal, a beautiful butterfly, is tough, and it will cross any border, no matter how challenging the journey may be. —Brittany Leal, The East Harlem School, New York City, N.Y.

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Essay on Migration

Students are often asked to write an essay on Migration in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Migration

Understanding migration.

Migration refers to the movement of people from one place to another. It can be within a country (internal migration) or between different countries (international migration).

Reasons for Migration

People migrate for various reasons. Some move for better job opportunities, while others might move due to conflicts or natural disasters in their home region.

Effects of Migration

Migration can have both positive and negative effects. It can lead to cultural diversity and economic growth, but it can also cause overcrowding and strain on resources.

Migration is a complex issue with many facets. It’s important to understand why people migrate and its impact on societies.

250 Words Essay on Migration

Introduction.

Migration, an inherent human phenomenon, has shaped societies and cultures since the dawn of civilization. It is a complex process influenced by an intricate interplay of economic, political, social, and environmental factors.

Types of Migration

Migration can be categorized broadly into internal and international. Internal migration involves movement within a country, often from rural to urban areas, driven by the pursuit of better economic opportunities. International migration, on the other hand, involves crossing national borders, often influenced by factors like conflict, persecution, or economic disparity.

The Push-Pull Theory

The push-pull theory provides a framework to understand migration. ‘Push’ factors include poverty, political instability, or environmental disasters that compel people to leave their homes. Conversely, ‘pull’ factors attract individuals to new regions, such as better job opportunities, political stability, or higher living standards.

Impacts of Migration

Migration has profound implications on both the source and destination regions. While it can lead to brain drain and demographic imbalances in the source region, it can also alleviate poverty and foster development. In destination regions, it can stimulate economic growth but may also strain resources and potentially cause social tension.

Migration, an integral part of our globalized world, presents both challenges and opportunities. It is crucial to foster policies that maximize its benefits while mitigating its potential drawbacks. Understanding the dynamics of migration can pave the way for more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable societies.

500 Words Essay on Migration

The driving forces of migration.

The primary drivers of migration are often classified as push and pull factors. Push factors refer to the conditions that drive individuals to leave their homes, such as poverty, lack of opportunities, political instability, or environmental disasters. Pull factors, on the other hand, are the attractive aspects of the destination, like better economic opportunities, political stability, or higher living standards.

Migration can be categorized into different types based on various parameters. Internal migration refers to the movement within a country, while international migration involves crossing national borders. Migration can also be voluntary, where individuals choose to move, or forced, where individuals are compelled to leave due to circumstances beyond their control.

For the destination region, migration can lead to an increase in diversity and cultural richness. It can also fill labor gaps, contributing to economic growth. However, if not managed well, it can lead to social tensions.

Migration in the Age of Globalization

In the era of globalization, migration has become more accessible and prevalent. The interconnectedness of economies has led to increased labor mobility. However, it has also exposed the stark inequalities between regions, further motivating migration. The rise of transnational communities, where migrants maintain strong ties with their home countries while integrating into the host society, is another notable trend.

Challenges and Opportunities

In conclusion, migration is an inherent part of human society, driven by a complex interplay of factors. It has far-reaching impacts on individuals, communities, and nations. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the dynamics of migration will continue to evolve, presenting both challenges and opportunities. Understanding and managing migration effectively is crucial to building inclusive, diverse, and prosperous societies.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Migration High School Questions

Help students understand how migration influences the world’s economies, cultures, and politics through these essay and discussion questions.

Introduction

What is the difference between an economic migrant and a refugee? In what ways is the distinction blurry?
Who benefits from emigration and a reliance on remittances in the Philippines? Who is hurt by it?
How does sovereignty complicate aiding refugees?
What patterns do you see in which countries migrants leave and which countries they go to?
The majority of refugees live in poor countries. Should wealthy countries do more, either by supporting host countries or hosting more refugees themselves?
What is the difference between an economic migrant and a refugee? In what ways is the distinction blurry?
Explain the difference between internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. What hardships are particular to IDPs?
How does sovereignty complicate aiding refugees?
Why is it more challenging for foreign governments and international nongovernmental organizations to support IDPs than to support refugees?
The majority of refugees live in poor countries. Should wealthy countries do more, either by supporting host countries or hosting more refugees themselves?
Which of the goals of national immigration policy (economy, security, values) do you think is the most important? What are the trade-offs of focusing on that goal?
What trends do you see in how U.S. immigration policy has changed over time?
To what extent do you think U.S. immigration policy promotes the goals of supporting the U.S. economy, security, and values?

Lesson summary graphic, reading: Students examine the question, “What is the migrant experience?” with the intention of demonstrating how international policies feed migration patterns that have a global effect.

Lesson Plan June 17, 2021

The Migrant’s Experience

This unit was created by Keysiah Middleton , a history teacher with the School District of Philadelphia, as part of the spring 2021 Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship program on Stories of Migration. It is designed for facilitation across approximately three 75 – 90 minute live or virtual class periods.

For more units created by Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellows in this cohort, click here .

Essential Questions:

What is the difference between the terms migrant, immigrant, and refugee ?
Why are so many people from countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia traveling through Central America to reach the United States?
Has the African and Caribbean story been eliminated from the migration and immigration narrative? If so, why?
How do migrants enter the United States? How easy/difficult do you think it is for migrants to enter the United States, and why?
How have the immigration and asylum policies of the United States affected migration?

Unit Overview:

In this mini-unit, high school students examine the question, “What is the migrant experience?” with the intention of demonstrating how international policies feed migration patterns that have a global effect.

“The Migrant Experience” mini-unit contains three (3) lessons. Each lesson is designed for approximately 90-minute class periods to be taught over a period of two or three weeks using 7 Step Lesson Plans - Do Now, Direct Instruction, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, Closure, Exit Ticket, and Homework - as well as media literacy resources and technological educational tools. The unit has been devised to be implemented in the traditional classroom setting or with the virtual classroom in mind.

Lesson 1 introduces the unit goals and key vocabulary. It also guides students in engaging their background knowledge to evaluate who is migrating and students’ connections to stories of migration. In Lesson 2 , students examine news articles that highlight the stories of people who are making the sometimes precarious migration to America and analyze the conditions that create the newly increased levels of migration to the United States via the Northern Triangle. Students survey the sojourn routes taken and contemplate what a migrant may endure along their migration journey. Lesson 3 goes into more details of the migration journey through analysis of news stories, and helps students make a national and global connection using Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series.” In attempting to answer the essential questions, students will implement research methods to uncover the information that encourages people to migrate from their home countries to completely different, and oftentimes hostile, new environments. Students will probe the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions of migration. Students can also examine the economic, social, political, cultural, and natural aspects of what causes people to leave their countries. Each lesson builds on one another to lay the foundation for the Culminating Exercise of a photo essay to be created using educational technology.

The unit will utilize the reporting of Nadja Drost, Bruno Frederico, and Nick Schifrin. Reporting explored in this unit, all of which was supported by the Pulitzer Center, document how migrants are taking the dangerous trek into the Panamanian jungle through the Darien Gap in hopes of making it to the American border. The reporting explores where many migrants meet hardships or death in the Amazon, and how migrants fortunate enough to make it through the Darien Gap often get stuck at the U.S-Mexican border. This is reminiscent of the West African migrants who migrated through the Saharan desert in an attempt to make it to Europe, only to get stuck in Spanish border cities like Ceuta or Melilla. Students will practice the skills of analyzing text , comparing and contrasting, participating in collaborative dialogue and discussion, utilizing digital media, publishing written products, developing vocabulary, conducting interviews, researching print material, delivering presentations, engaging in cooperative lesson activities, and producing a topic-related culminating exercise. Utilizing a multitude of media literacy resources, my goal is to create a mini-unit that teaches students to analyze the migrant , immigrant, or refugee experience, and to develop a better understanding of that experience.

For the culminating exercise, students will use Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” as a template to create a photo essay that describes a story of a person who is migrating, immigrating, or seeking asylum as a refugee. Students will conduct research using trusted internet sources, magazines, newspapers, etc. They will then use a rubric to guide them in creating the photographic essay. Each photo must explain part of the migration experience. Each photo must contain a caption that explains the photo. Students can also add a video describing the pieces. Students can use Google Slides, Canva, Thinglink, Powerpoint, or appropriate social media applications to produce their final pieces.

Three-lesson unit plan, including warm-ups, texts and video resources, discussion questions, activities, graphic organizers for each day of instruction, and performance tasks for the unit.

Summative Assessments:

For the culminating exercise, students will use Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” as a template to create a photo essay that describes a story of a person who is migrating, immigrating, or seeking asylum as a refugee. Students will conduct research using trusted internet sources, magazines, newspapers, etc. They will then use a rubric to guide them in creating the photographic essay. Each photo must explain part of the migration experience. Each photo must contain a caption that explains the photo. Students can also add a video describing the pieces. Students can use Google Slides , Canva , Thinglink , PowerPoint, or appropriate social media applications to produce their final pieces.

To achieve the goals intended and practice the academic skills, students will engage with assorted print media materials (i.e, magazine articles, news reports, and books), videos, internet search engines, digital educational tools, an assorted array of graphic organizers and worksheets. The tools to be utilized to assess formative and summative performance tasks for the unit include various writing prompts, cooperative group work, Socratic Seminar, presentations, and a culminating photo essay.

Formative Assessments:

Students will fill out daily warm-up responses and exit tickets.
Students conduct research about their own families’ histories of migration.

Common Core Standards:

CC.1.2.9-10.B: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences and conclusions based on an author’s explicit assumptions and beliefs about a subject.
CC.1.2.9-10.C: Apply appropriate strategies to analyze, interpret, and evaluate how an author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas, events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
CC.1.2.9–10.E: Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text.
CC.1.2.9-10.F: Students will analyze how words and phrases shape meaning and tone in texts.
CC.1.2.9-10.G: Students will analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums to determine which details are emphasized in each account.
CC.1.2.9–10.H: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing the validity of reasoning and relevance of evidence.
CC.1.4.9-10.U: Students will use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
CC.1.5.9-10.A: Students will initiate and participate effectively in a large range of collaborative discussions on grade-level topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CC.1.5.9–10.D: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning; ensure that the presentation is appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
CC.1.5.9-10.F: Students will make strategic use of digital media in presentations to add interest and enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence.

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REPORTING FEATURED IN THIS LESSON PLAN

The Long, Dangerous Road Through the Darien Gap and a Chance Encounter in Brooklyn

Coming to America: It's Not Like the Movie

For an Agricultural Worker, Supporting His Family Means Being Separated From Them

How U.S. Immigration Policy Affects Fate of Migrants Braving the Deadly Darien Gap

Causes and Effects of Immigration

Categories: Illegal Immigration

About this sample

Words: 731 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 731 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Causes of immigration, effects of immigration, a. economic factors, b. political factors, c. social factors, a. economic effects, b. social effects, c. political effects.

National Academy of Sciences. (2017). The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration .
Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD). (2019). International Migration Outlook 2019 .
Peri, G., & Shih, K. (2019). "The Economic Contribution of Unauthorized Workers: An Industry Analysis". National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series.

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8 Resources for Teaching Immigration

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October 3 marks the anniversary of the signing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which both repealed a number of outdated and discriminatory immigration practices and launched a new era in US immigration policy that has remained largely unchanged in the decades since. As issues of immigration and migration continue to make headlines all educators are welcome to take advantage of our growing library of curricular resources that help students understand key historical migrations, the impact of the policies surrounding them, contemporary migration issues shaping our world, and the ways that migration shapes individual and national identity.

Check out 8 resources below designed to help educators address immigration in the classroom with curiosity and confidence:

Immigration and Identity in History

Angel Island Immigration Station: Exploring Borders and Belonging in US History In this C-3 style inquiry, students engage with the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station to think critically about the concept of borders —not simply geographic borders but the social, economic, and political boundaries erected throughout US history to separate “in” groups from “out” groups.

As they explore historical and contemporary sources, students will draw connections between the exclusionary US immigration policies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the borders that exist within American society today.

The Legacies of Chinese Exclusion The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law to restrict US immigration on the basis of race. The activities in this mini-lesson engage students in an exploration of the historical context and consequences of the 1882 legislation, drawing connections between the exclusion era and today. They also invite students to analyze a letter of protest from Chinese immigrant Saum Song Bo and consider how immigrants themselves played a role in shaping notions of democracy and citizenship within a polity that excluded them.

My Part of the Story: Exploring Identity in the United States My Part of the Story is a collection of six lessons designed to launch a course about United States history, literature, or civic life through an examination of students’ individual identities. Adolescence is a time when many young people struggle with issues of independence, trust, freedom, and responsibility. It is also a time when life centers around peer groups and mutual relationships. The materials in this unit support and challenge students in their efforts to define their own identity and their relationship to society as a whole. This approach empowers students to develop their own voices in both the classroom and the world at large, and it engages students in a study of the United States by showing them that their voices are integral to the story of the country.

Contemporary Migrations + Immigrant Experiences

Why Do People Migrate? This mini-lesson is designed to help students consider their own connections to migration and to learn about migration from El Salvador to the United States as a means of exploring the immediate and underlying factors that drive migration.

What is our Obligation to Asylum Seekers? This mini-lesson helps students understand how the asylum process works in the United States and also consider the question: Who has an obligation to help asylum seekers?

Different Perspectives on Migrant Detention This mini-lesson is designed to give students insight into migration and migrant detention through different perspectives⁠—migrants who were detained, an immigration lawyer and advocate, a border guard, and an immigration judge. Examining this issue through different perspectives can help students gain important insight into the situation in detention centers and engage in ethical reflection about the treatment of migrants at the border. However, descriptions of the conditions in some facilities are disturbing, and it is important to review materials to determine if they are appropriate for your students.

Brave Girl Rising: A Refugee Story Nasro is a Somali-born girl living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya and she is the subject of the extraordinary film Brave Girl Rising . Produced by the creators of the 2013 film Girl Rising and released to mark International Women’s Day, this 17-minute film shares Nasro’s story as told by the Somali poet Warsan Shire. Created in partnership with Girl Rising, this mini-lesson invites students to engage with Nasro’s story, examine the challenges she faces, and the strength she discovers. They also explore how an individual’s story, told with rich imagery and language, can spark empathy and ethical reflection on an issue whose vast scale can be difficult to grasp.

Teaching Enrique’s Journey Watch this on-demand webinar to explore the young adult version of Enrique's Journey , a powerful biography written by journalist Sonia Nazario for which we offer a robust teaching unit . When Enrique was five, his mother, too poor to feed her children, left Honduras to work in the United States. She promised she would return quickly, but she struggled in America. After eleven years, he set off alone, and without money, to find her. This book, based on a Pulitzer-prize winning series in the Los Angeles Times , chronicles his harrowing journey to be reunited with his mother, providing insight into the realities of immigration and the people who risk so much for a chance to live in the United States.

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Why Teach About Migration? Because It's the Story of Humankind

Posted by Adam Strom on August 24, 2017

It is August, a time when, although technically on vacation, many educators in the United States have already turned their attention to their classrooms. Some teachers are buying supplies; others are rewriting lessons and curricula. Most are doing both. A lot of us are thinking about our students and how we can create learning environments that will allow all of them to thrive.

In schools, across the globe, the children of immigrants come ready and eager to learn. In the United States, for example, 25 percent of children under the age of 18, a total of 18.7 million children, have an immigrant parent. We recognize, from our own experiences working with youth, that the success of children of immigrants is essential to our shared future.

Unfortunately, the messages our young people are getting from the wider world often run counter to the conditions we try to create in our classrooms. In this year’s summer heat, across much of the world, the rhetoric about immigration is scorching. On broadcast and social media, accusations fly. As an educator, it has become evident that as a public we don’t know very much about migration , and we sure don’t give it the kind of attention it deserves in the education of young people. If we take the role of schools seriously as training grounds for civic engagement, it is time to rethink how we approach these issues in schools.

The story of migration is the story of humankind . The genetic and paleontological record of human migration is at least 60,000 years old. Researchers know that all humans can trace their origins to Southern Africa, while some homo sapiens migrated across Africa and stayed, others ventured out to the Asia, Australia, Europe, and eventually to the America s. This is our shared experience.

The stories of these ancient journey’s testify to our ingenuity as a species, and as we scrutinize them, they challenge us to think about our identities as individuals, groups, and nations. We are a people that have been on the move for a long time.

The 21st century has new patterns of migration— from rural villages to cities, from region to region—that are worldwide . Teaching about migration as an ongoing theme in the human condition provides a lens to explore our past and ask new questions. In different periods in the history teach, or in the literature we read, what were the push and pull factors that influenced the people to migrate? Those choices often involved facing great risk and uncertainty. To what extent were the choices to migrate made voluntarily? To what extent were those choices forced upon people due to conflict, war, or economic exploitation? By recognizing the continuity and the changes across time in experiences of migration, we also create the conditions from a more civil conversation about current stories. To return to an earlier metaphor, it turns down the heat.

Histories of migration and integration are reminders of the amazing abilities of humans to adapt to new circumstances. At the same time, these stories expose the faultlines communities develop over who can belong and who cannot belong? Do we ask newcomers to assimilate, and give up their old customs, in order to fit in? Often histories of migration, reveal records of integration, a two-way exchange between newcomers and the dominant society. These are the frequently unexamined stories behind our customs, foods, and language. The history of migration, in fact, is the history of how we became to be who we are today.

Migration to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the country to redefine what it meant to be an American. As newcomers came, what role would religion and race play in the national identity of the nation? These questions remain with us and are negotiated within every generation. In recent weeks, we’ve seen what happens when civil dialogue about difference breaks down. Democracy itself is at risk. History and literature can provide insights into today’s challenges, but teachers need resources, professional development, and support for their peers, communities, and administrators. When our schools ignore these important civic stories, we risk further polarization, and an opportunity for all of us to better understand what it means to be human.

Below are a few suggested guiding questions for teaching about migration. As good teachers know, even if we have been at this a while, we are constantly revisiting and revising our work.

Guiding Questions and Throughlines

Why do humans migrate? When do people migrate by choice and when is it determined by circumstances? In addition, we might want students to consider: What are some current events that are forcing individuals to migrate?
What factors influence how communities respond to migration? What are the different ways communities can respond to newcomers? When are individuals and communities welcoming to newcomers? When are individuals and communities hostile to newcomers?
How does migration impact migrants and their host communities? How does migration impact the way members of host communities see themselves and others? How does the experience of migration impact the identities of newcomers and their descendants?
How can individuals and communities accommodate multiple belongings? How can communities balance a respect for difference without creating parallel lives for those that live there? What needs to happen to enable newcomers and host communities to thrive and develop a common sense of identity and purpose?

Explore a teacher-created unit about migration and belonging. T his six-week unit for a 7th and 8th grade integrated Language Arts and Humanities classroom, uses a selection of Facing History resources related to immigration and identity, and a performance task based on the Literacy Design Collaborative Task #2 for Argumentation/Analysis.

Topics: Immigration

Written by Adam Strom

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The Great Migration Lesson Plan

Students will learn about the Great Migration through discussion, analyzing primary sources in cooperative groups, watching a TED Talk, and reading an excerpt of a secondary source.

To create awareness among students about the societal changes during World War I.

Analyze the causes and effects of the Great Migration
Evaluate primary source material from the Great Migration

Kansas Standards for History, Government, and Social Studies • Standard #4 Societies experience continuity and change over time. • Standard #5 Relationships among people, places, ideas, and environments are dynamic. Advanced Placement US History Key Concepts 7.2 Innovations in communications and technology contributed to the growth of mass culture, while significant changes occurred in internal and international migration patterns. Concept Outline II. Economic pressures, global events, and political developments caused sharp variations in the numbers, sources, and experiences of both international and internal migrants. C. In a Great Migration during and after World War I, African Americans escaping segregation, racial violence, and limited economic opportunity in the South moved to the North and West, where they found new opportunities but still encountered discrimination.

Lakisha Odlum. The Great Migration. 2016. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-great-migration/teaching-guide. (Accessed July 18, 2018.) “The Great Migration and the Power of a Single Decision ~ Isabel Wilkerson.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3qA8DNc2Ss. Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.

“A negro family just arrived in Chicago from the rural South,” Digital Public Library of America, http:// dp.la/item/301a3b1ef3135e75f77478cccb7da403. “During World War I there was a great migration north by southern Negroes,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/202cd2eec8a07f914da3df05d75481b7. “Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918.” The Journal of Negro History, July and October 1919. https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/260GMigration.html.

Block 1 Bell Work: With a table partner, students will compare and contrast the Jacob Lawrence painting and a photograph of an African-American family who just arrived in Chicago. Questions to consider when analyzing these images: 1. How are migrants dressed in both images? 2. How does does their attire reflect their attitudes about migrating to the North? 3. Both images are framed in such a way that the people fill the entire frame, what feeling or mood does this elicit in the viewer? 4. What are some the messages the artists convey by framing their works in such a way? Discuss answers in class.

Teacher led discussion of the Great Migration. Teachers should emphasize the role of World War I, which limited the supply of cheap immigrant labor; the rise of the industrial factory jobs in the North, which depended on cheap labor to function; agricultural difficulties in the South; and the difficulties of life in the Jim Crow South for African American families, such as discrimination, lynching, denial of access to political equality, and the lack of educational opportunities.

3. Document Analysis Activity “Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916-1918.” The Journal of Negro History, July and October 1919. https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/260GMigration.html Students will work in groups of two to analyze the nine letters using the HIPP method. In the HIPP method, students analyze the document for the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and pointof- view.

4. Watch “The Great Migration and the power of a single decision” Isabel Wilkerson TED Talk on YouTube. (17:55) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3qA8DNc2Ss

5. Assignment Read the excerpt from The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (p. 3-15) and answer the guided reading questions.

Block 2 Students will write a timed, in-class long essay (LEQ). They will have 40 minutes to write this essay. Students will be graded based on the Advanced Placement Long Essay Question Rubric. Students will self-grade using the rubric before turning in their essays.

Great Migration LEQ Directions: In your response you should do the following. • Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning. • Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt. • Support an argument in response to the prompt using specific and relevant examples of evidence. • Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation, continuity or change over time) to frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt. • Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt. Prompt: Evaluate the extent to which World War I was the primary cause of the Great Migration of African Americans.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson Guided Reading Questions 1. Account of Ida Mae Brandon Gladney Where did she live? When did she leave? Summarize her "leaving" story/account in 1 paragraph.

2. Account of George Swanson Starling Where did he live? When did he leave? Summarize his "leaving" story/account in 1 paragraph.

3. Account of Robert Joseph Pershing Foster Where did he live? When did he leave? Summarize his "leaving" story/account in 1 paragraph.

4. Each "leaving" occurs about 8 years later than the previous one. What similarities do you see between the accounts? What differences? (Continuity and Change Over Time)

5. When did this "silent pilgrimage" (the Great Migration) begin? When did it end?

6. How does the author describe/define the Great Migration? 7. During the Great Migration, how many people left the South? 8. Why does the author argue the Great Migration was a turning point in American History? Do you agree or not? Explain/defend your answer. 9. Where can we see the "imprint" of the Great Migration in urban life? 10. How did the black population of Chicago change because of the Great Migration? 11. What was the ritual of arrival that just about every migrant did? 12. What omission does the book The Warmth of Other Suns address? 13. What types of evidence did historian Isabel Wilkerson use to define/piece together the events of the Great Migration for the three accounts at the beginning of the excerpt? 14. What distortions have miscast the emigrants? 15. In the past 20 years, a different picture has emerged. Describe this new picture. 16. Why were the actions of the people in the Great Migration both "universal and distinctly American"?

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Description	Tags	Author
Learn how to use the Community Across book guides to lead effective read-alouds	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Guide for reading to children	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Guides for reading and to children	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Guide for reading to children	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Guide for reading to children	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Guide for reading to children	early childhood, elementary school, book list	The Immigrant Learning Center
Blog post on thoughtfully engaging with your students’ immigration stories in the classroom	article/report, elementary school, high school, middle school	The Immigrant Learning Center
Recommended books to diversify your classroom library or summer reading list with stories of the immigrant experience	blog, book list, early childhood, elementary school, high school, middle school	The Immigrant Learning Center
Nine concise, diverse Latinx immigrant stories to share with your class	blog, high school, middle school, adult and higher education	The Immigrant Learning Center
Seven engaging stories of exceptional undocumented/DACA Americans	blog, high school, middle school, adult and higher education	The Immigrant Learning Center
Profiles of immigrant students and autobiography from an immigration reporter	video, early childhood, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	The Immigrant Learning Center
Educators and immigration experts discuss how to shape and share immigrant stories.	video, early childhood, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	The Immigrant Learning Center
Experts in storytelling, the media and bilingual education give strategies for uplifting immigrant stories and empowering newly-arrived immigrant students.	handout, early childhood, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	The Immigrant Learning Center
Learn about refugees, engage families, identify and assist students needing support from traumatic experiences, storytelling and more	website, on-demand learning, elementary school, middle school, high school	CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education
Large, searchable archive of interviews with immigrants and refugees	website, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	CLINIC
An interactive digital storytelling project to show how immigrants are our neighbors to be encountered and embraced	website, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	Center for Global Migration Studies
Video clips of four immigrant teens and related lesson supporting literacy skills	video, website, lesson plan, elementary school, middle school	PBS LearningMedia
Story of 16 year old Miriam Martinez from TEDxCarverMilitaryAcademy	video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	TEDx Talks
Video clip of documentary that follows five recent immigrants in their senior year at NYC’s International High School at Lafayette	video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	Jean-Michel Dissard
A digital story of the struggles of Chinese immigrant students at a Charlestown, MA, high school	video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center
Short film and lesson plans about a 10-year-old boy who has just immigrated from Mexico	video, lesson plan, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	Richard Levien, Director
Stories of migration and cultural identity, past and present, featuring objects and traditions	website, elementary school, middle school, high school	Tenement Museum
Project to capture immigrant stories through videos, books and programs	website, middle school, high school, adult and higher school, community organization	Green Card Voices
Article focusing on why unaccompanied minors chose to leave their families and their experiences	article/report, elementary school, high school, middle school	excerpt from , by Marie McAuliffe and Khalid Koser
Series of stories showing the many identities and experiences of Muslim Americans	video, website, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	Center for Asian American Media
An app to record, share and explore migration stories, and resources for educators	website, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	Re-Imagining Migration
Article, booklist and tips for helping ELLs tell their stories	article/report, elementary school, middle school, high school	Laura Grisso, Colorín Colorado
Five steps for adopting an asset-based approach with EL students and related activities using New York Times resources	article/report, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	Larry Ferlazzo and Katherine Schulten
Five tips for educating digital storytellers and subject-specific ideas for digital storytelling	article/report, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	Michael Hernandez, EdSurge
Platform for creating, sharing and browsing immigration stories and short films, accessible in English, Spanish and French	website, video, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	iNation Media
Three-unit curriculum for grades eight to adult using a library of original video stories made by immigrants and refugees	website, lesson plan, video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education	University of Minnesota and The Advocates for Human Rights
Selection of books about immigrants and refugees that includes varied racial/cultural representation and a focus on #OwnVoices	website, early childhood, elementary school	Diverse Book Finder
Curriculum for creating short videos of personal or family migration stories in a classroom or public workshop setting	website, lesson plans, high school, adult and higher education	University of Minnesota Immigration History Research Center
Interactive tours, virtual field trips, immigrant stories, immigration data and more from Scholastic	website, elementary school, middle school	Scholastic
Common Core-aligned lesson plan about writing digital stories to create empathy and understanding about immigration	elementary school, middle school, high school, lesson plan	Teach Immigration
Collection of short videos and accompanying curriculum following the lives and challenges of DACA recipients	website, lesson plan, video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	iNation Media
Six-episode series showing the reality of young people in the DACA program	video, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	Indie Lens Storycast
List of books for all grade levels on the experiences of refugees around the world	book list, elementary school, high school, middle school	Edutopia
Printable reading guides and activities for books that amplify the experiences of first generation families	book guide, elementary school, high school, middle school, website	Modern Marigold Books
Printable reading guides for children’s books about South Asia	book guide, elementary school, high school, middle school, website	Yali Books
Book lists for various ages to bring challenging topics and diverse perspectives into the classroom	book list, elementary school, high school, middle school, website	Anti-Defamation League
Oral history-based curricula based on Voice of Witness book series, trainings and educational supports for skill development	website, elementary school, middle school, high school, adult and higher education, community organization	Voices of Witness

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Immigration and Its Impact on American Schools

By Lynn M. Gangone

How do America’s immigration challenges impact schools?

The challenge is that there are undocumented students entering U.S. schools, colleges, and universities who were not given the option to decide for themselves whether they wanted to come to this country. They have been incorporated into society, but are affected by current practices that impact their safety and security. It is projected that by the year 2040, one in every three children in the United States will grow up in an immigrant household (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008). It begs the question: How do we work with those students?

Educators, school support staff, and service providers are often the first individuals in whom a student and/or family confides and reveals that they are undocumented. Recent efforts to identify undocumented parents and children in the United States challenge public schools in their efforts to meet the needs of all children residing within their school districts. Public schools are often embroiled in politically and legally sensitive situations, in which they must balance their responsibilities to serve immigrant and undocumented children, while meeting the expectations of local authorities to identify undocumented individuals.

What role do educators play in supporting immigrant children and their families?

This is part and parcel of the fact that the educator today has a very different student to educate than 10 or 15 years ago. Educators play a crucial role in how kids are welcomed into the classroom and within their communities overall. We have families coming into our public school system who do not understand how the system works, making the educator the bridge between the child and the family. In these instances, the role of educators is to understand how to support and encourage these students— to advance them and foster their achievement. Immigrant students must have the same opportunities to flourish as other students. Our educators must serve many roles for these students in a challenging societal environment, where many are suspicious of and hostile toward immigrants. Undocumented parents are afraid and lack resources to advocate for the educational needs of their children. Educators can serve as advocates for these students. The school system is the most important institution in the lives of undocumented immigrant children, where students’ experiences can either mimic the negative social inequalities faced outside of school or equalize them (Bruno, 2011; Morrison & Bryan, 2014).

Let’s look at the facts.

The U.S. Department of Education says all children in the United States are warranted equal access to a public elementary and secondary education, regardless of their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status. This includes recently arrived and unaccompanied children who are in immigration proceedings while residing in local communities with a parent, family member, or other appropriate adult sponsor. (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.)

What are the challenges in preparing and producing teachers for English Language Learners?

AACTE will be releasing an issue brief highlighting degree trends in high-demand teaching specialties. The Association is exploring how to address the overall teacher shortage, while also examining those critical areas of need inside the larger shortage: ESOL, special education and STEM educators. The lack of teacher candidates and teachers wanting this type of training is staggering. The latest studies are showing that we are seeing a slight increase in the number of educators with an ESOL concentration, which is good. But going from really bad, to not so bad, is simply not good enough. We tend to have curricula that is not focused on ESOL teaching and learning, and we have a nationwide shortage of preservice or in-service educators who want to prepare to teach these students in the public education environment. Teachers are forced to manage a variety of learner needs requiring specialized training and applications that have been found to be effective. Unfortunately, the untrained teacher can quickly become overwhelmed and contribute to the disconnect between learner needs and pedagogy. Research repeatedly shows basic solutions to support teaching practices that are differentiated in nature and move pedagogy from homogenous to heterogeneous based on individual student needs lead to sustainable success.

Why is it important for immigrant students to feel safe in schools?

Beyond performance in school, an indication of how well immigrant students are integrating into their new community is whether, and to what extent, they feel a sense of belonging in their new surroundings.

Social-emotional needs

Teachers across the country (whether born to undocumented parents or an immigrant themselves) have noted fears that families and friends, and occasionally they themselves, would be picked up by ICE, making it very difficult at times for students to learn and teachers to teach. According to findings from a national survey of educators from more than 730 schools across 24 districts and 12 states, 90% of school administrators observed emotional and behavioral problems among students from immigrant families. Two-thirds of respondents also reported that the fear and concern for classmates was affecting the education of students who were not targets of enforcement.

Absenteeism

Absenteeism is another issue that affects immigrant students, as noted by 68% of administrative staff in all regions. “I have heard students say that they do not want to come to school, in case their parents are deported,” said a teacher from Texas.

How can educators advocate for federal/state policies and funding to support immigrant students?

As educators, we have a duty to ensure that every student has a chance at success and access to education. We must stress the importance of taking proactive steps to ensure the safety and well-being of children and communities.

Teachers and educational professionals can advocate for legislation for immigrant students with efforts as simple as issuing a statement. This statement should be in English and other languages spoken within the community, and should articulate that the school supports immigrant students/parents and affirms publicly that it is a welcoming environment.

Additionally, the distribution of “know your rights” materials to students, families, and communities about what to do if a raid occurs or an individual is detained is crucial to alerting them to the current climate.

More proactive measures include the following:

Identify a bilingual person within school settings who can serve as the immigration resource advocate in your building or on your campus.
Work with parents to develop a family immigration raid emergency plan.
Provide a safe place for students to wait if a parent or sibling has been detained.
Make certain counseling plans are in place for students who have had a family member detained by ICE.
Create strategies with school boards to pass resolutions affirming schools as welcoming places of learning for all students, distancing the schools from enforcement actions that separate families.
Set in motion plans to strengthen relationships with local institutions of higher education and community-based organizations that can support the needs of unaccompanied children and students with interrupted formal education.
Maintain a list of resources, in English and other languages spoken at the school, including names of mental health providers, social workers, pro bono attorneys, and local immigration advocates and organizations that can be shared with students and their families.
Partner with a pro bono attorney, legal aid organization, or immigrant rights organization to schedule “know your rights” workshops to inform students and families about their rights.
Research local immigration raid rapid response teams. These teams usually consist of attorneys, media personnel, and community leaders who may be able to provide support.
Participate in National Educators Coming Out Day, held annually on November 12, and “come out” in support of undocumented students.
Participate in National Institutions Coming Out Day, held annually on April 7.

How do programs like DACA help advance the educational attainment and rights of immigrant students?

When President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative in 2012, the idea was to offer an American immigration policy giving relief from deportation. Its purpose is to protect eligible immigrant youth brought into the United States when they were children from being sent back to a country they have never known. The program gives these young, undocumented immigrants that deportation protection, as well as a work permit. The program expires after two years, but in some cases can be renewed. The program, however, does not offer a path to citizenship.

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced plans to gradually end the program, arguing that the establishment of DACA represented an unconstitutional overreach of Obama’s executive power, a conclusion with which many legal scholars disagree.

Since then, many lawsuits have been filed against the administration for terminating DACA unlawfully . Now, three nationwide injunctions issued by U.S. district courts (California, New York, and Washington, D.C) allow individuals with previous DACA benefits to renew their deferred action.

The Supreme Court will likely hear oral arguments on the cases this fall or winter. A decision is expected no later than June 2020. For now, DACA recipients can continue to submit applications for renewal.

AACTE is part of a coalition of higher education associations called the Washington Higher Education Secretariat. With those Supreme Court cases in mind, the coalition often files amicus briefs in support of the continuation of DACA. Amicus briefs are legal documents filed in appellate court cases by non-litigants who have a strong interest in the subject matter; in this case, the subject is the continuation of DACA benefits. The briefs advise the court of relevant information or arguments that the court may want or need to consider.

DACA students deserve every available opportunity in education. I would rather see students educated than imprisoned. They are contributing deeply to our country as a whole.

We have students whose experience influences how they end up engaging in careers. Many of our DACA students go into areas of service like teaching, and many of them want to become immigration attorneys to help others like themselves. DACA gives these immigrant students a fighting chance to be educated.

It makes an enormous difference to see students who can take advantage of in-state tuition and other benefits of living here. Their lived experience is that of living in the United States. We want to provide them with the capacity to have an education and not be afraid that they will be deported back to a country that is foreign to them.

These programs provide opportunity, and that is what education is all about.

Lynn M. Gangone is the president and chief executive officer at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).

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Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

Essay on Migration | Causes and Effects of Migration

December 3, 2017 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

Animals and man have been ever travelling. From grassy plains to fertile land, in search of better food, better opportunities. ‘Migration’ means the movement of population from one place to another for better opportunities.

Table of Contents

What is Migration?

Everyone wishes to lead a happy and secure life. A place where they can offer security to their family and a better future both for themselves and family. Migration many be of two types- permanent and temporary. Some migration may also occur annually, seasonally, or diurnally. According to certain census it has been found that migration mostly happens in three stages- (a) rural to rural , (b) rural to urban , (c) urban to urban , and (d) urban to rural

Maximum migration is from rural to urban, especially in developing countries like India. Even urban to urban migration happens quite a lot. But migration of the type (a), (d) is very rare. Migration of type (a) happens only when a person goes from another village to sell his items during bazaar or Melas. Some migration also happens from rural to small then from small town to urban. Such type of migration is called step wise migration.

In India there is a crazy race of the population travelling from the rural areas to the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore etc, seeking for better employment and better work opportunities. And this craze is increasing more and more in the coming years.

That is why competition in the job sector is increasing in the urban sphere. Metropolitan cities act a crowd puller. People are attracted to the vibrant colours of life in the cities. They fall in the wrong notion that they can pull up something big or great in the cities and earn a living but not everyone gets equal opportunities. Some end up rag-pickers, some end up as street dwellers, and some end up beggars who don’t get any means of livelihood.

Another term that comes along with migration is commutation. Commutation is the means of travelling on a daily schedule of the people to cities from the neighbouring towns and villages for the purpose of job and other works. This is a type of temporary migration.

Some people commute seasonally- incase or family gathering or wedding ceremonies. While some immigrants migrate annually. Migration is not just a re-location of human resources and settlements but it is a process which has three-fold impact:

(a) On the area experiencing immigration,

(b) On the area experiencing out-migration, and

(c) On the migrants themselves, the purpose of migration may be employment, business, education, family movement, marriage, calamity, etc.

These migrants have very little skill and professional expertise, moreover they lack literacy. They mostly get involved in the low grade activities and fields of manual labour, where there is not much sophistication or use of literary capabilities.

Very few are in administrative, professional or technical sphere. The condition of women migrants is worse. Majority of them are illiterate or have very little literacy. Such people take up even lower grade of jobs like the domestic maid servants, hawkers or vendors. This change has been termed by many as ‘evolutionary urbanization’.

This sudden migration burst has led in detoriation in the look of the city and spreading of cities. Rapid human pressure has led to the unprecedented growth of shabby towns, slums and bastees and squatter settlements. Cities are spreading far beyond its boundary limits.

There are also other evils like the overflow of urban unemployment, rapid exploitation of the items of daily necessity like- food, clothing and shelter and their unavailability and there is a very sharp decline of human values and moral and it is increasing over the years( as observed its increase from 1981-1999 and will steadily increase over the 21st century).

Hence the metropolitan cities are becoming like blown-up urban villages which fail to offer basic necessities of life to the people residing in it. Due to unchecked or unprecedented human growth the cities lack in urban functions, characteristics, urban infrastructure and services, and without a strong economic base.

They are slowly stepping towards what is called as ‘degeneration’ or ‘decay’.

The urban areas not only attract the poor and the illiterate class but it has become a place for the educated and elite class to earn a living and lead a comfortable and relaxed life. There have been many cases where students from villages have come in cities to get higher education, managed with a good job and become a part of the city itself.

Even some big landlords and rich farmers have shown their interest in investing a good part of their agricultural profits in the different businesses that goes on in the city and also commercial activities. Hence the cities of developing countries like India are developing on the plunder or the remains of the rural parts (both natural and human). Unless this exploitation of blood-sucking trend is terminated for once and for all, the development or the revival of the ‘desi’ villages is a farfetched dream.

Not just there are rural immigrants to deal with. There are international migrants as well. Majority of the international migrants to India come from Asian countries, which are in turn followed by Europeans, Africans, etc. The neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Russia etc. have contributed large number of migrants to India.

Since there is no restriction along Indo-Nepal international boundary large numbers of Nepali people come to India for seeking employment, education, business etc. Assam, West Bengal and north eastern states attract large number of legal and illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

This has created a number of social, economic and political problems in these areas. Nepalese are seen in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Delhi. Similarly migrants from Sri Lanka are most frequented in South India especially in Tamil Nadu

Migration not only creates confusion and commotion, but also an ill-growth of cities. That does not mean that we will shun away the immigrants.

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Article contents

Global migration: causes and consequences.

Benjamin Helms Benjamin Helms Department of Politics, University of Virginia
and David Leblang David Leblang Department of Politics, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.631
Published online: 25 February 2019

International migration is a multifaceted process with distinct stages and decision points. An initial decision to leave one’s country of birth may be made by the individual or the family unit, and this decision may reflect a desire to reconnect with friends and family who have already moved abroad, a need to diversify the family’s access to financial capital, a demand to increase wages, or a belief that conditions abroad will provide social and/or political benefits not available in the homeland. Once the individual has decided to move abroad, the next decision is the choice of destination. Standard explanations of destination choice have focused on the physical costs associated with moving—moving shorter distances is often less expensive than moving to a destination farther away; these explanations have recently been modified to include other social, political, familial, and cultural dimensions as part of the transaction cost associated with migrating. Arrival in a host country does not mean that an émigré’s relationship with their homeland is over. Migrant networks are an engine of global economic integration—expatriates help expand trade and investment flows, they transmit skills and knowledge back to their homelands, and they remit financial and human capital. Aware of the value of their external populations, home countries have developed a range of policies that enable them to “harness” their diasporas.

immigration
international political economy
factor flows
gravity models

Introduction

The steady growth of international labor migration is an important, yet underappreciated, aspect of globalization. 1 In 1970 , just 78 million people, or about 2.1% of the global population, lived outside their country of birth. By 1990 , that number had nearly doubled to more than 150 million people, or about 2.8% of the global population (United Nations Population Division, 2012 ). Despite the growth of populist political parties and restrictionist movements in key destination countries, the growth in global migration shows no signs of slowing down, with nearly 250 million people living outside their country of birth as of 2015 . While 34% of all global migrants live in industrialized countries (with the United States and Germany leading the way), 38% of all global migration occurs between developing countries (World Bank, 2016 ).

Identifying the causes and consequences of international labor migration is essential to our broader understanding of globalization. Scholars across diverse academic fields, including economics, political science, sociology, law, and demography, have attempted to explain why individuals voluntarily leave their homelands. The dominant thread in the labor migration literature is influenced by microeconomics, which posits that individuals contemplating migration are rational, utility-maximizing actors who carefully weigh the potential costs and benefits of leaving their country of origin (e.g., Borjas, 1989 ; Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Grogger & Hanson, 2011 ). The act of migration, from this perspective, is typically conceptualized as an investment from which a migrant expects to receive some benefit, whether it be in the form of increased income, political freedom, or enhanced social ties (Schultz, 1961 ; Sjaastad, 1962 ; Collier & Hoeffler, 2014 ).

In this article we go beyond the treatment of migration as a single decision and conceive of it as a multifaceted process with distinct stages and decision points. We identify factors that are relevant at different stages in the migration process and highlight how and when certain factors interact with others during the migration process. Economic factors such as the wage differential between origin and destination countries, for example, may be the driving factor behind someone’s initial decision to migrate (Borjas, 1989 ). But when choosing a specific destination, economic factors may be conditioned by political or social conditions in that destination (Fitzgerald, Leblang, & Teets, 2014 ). Each stage or decision point has distinguishing features that are important in determining how (potential) migrants respond to the driving forces identified by scholars.

This is certainly not a theoretical innovation; migration has long been conceived of as a multi-step process, and scholars often identify the stage or decision point to which their argument best applies. However, most interdisciplinary syntheses of the literature on international labor migration do not provide a systematic treatment of this defining feature, instead organizing theoretical and empirical contributions by field of study, unit or level of analysis, or theoretical tradition (e.g., Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Massey et al., 1993 ; European Asylum Support Office, 2016 ). Such approaches are undoubtedly valuable in their own right. Our decision to organize this discussion by stage allows us to understand this as a process, rather than as a set of discrete events. As a result, we conceptualize international labor migration as three stages or decision points: (a) the decision to migrate or to remain at home, (b) the choice of destination, and (c) the manner by which expatriates re-engage—or choose not to re-engage—with their country of origin once abroad. We also use these decision points to highlight a number of potential new directions for future research in this still-evolving field.

Figure 1. Global migration intentions by educational attainment, 2008–2017.

Should I Stay or Should I Go, Now?

The massive growth in international labor migration in the age of globalization is remarkable, but the fact remains that over 95% of the world’s population never leave their country of origin (United Nations Population Division, 2012 ). Figure 1 shows the percentage of people who expressed an intention to move abroad between 2008 and 2017 by educational attainment, according to data from the Gallup World Poll. Over this time period, it appears that those who were highly educated expressed intent to migrate in greater numbers than those who had less than a college education, although these two groups have converged in recent years. What is most striking, however, is that a vast majority of people, regardless of educational attainment, expressed no desire to move abroad. Even though absolute flows of migrants have grown at a near-exponential rate, relative to their non-migrating counterparts, they remain a small minority. What factors are important in determining who decides to migrate and who decides to remain at home? 2

From Neoclassical Economics to the Mobility Transition

Neoclassical economic models posit that the primary driving factor behind migration is the expected difference in wages (discounted future income streams) between origin and destination countries (Sjaastad, 1962 ; Borjas, 1989 ; Clark, Hatton, & Williamson, 2007 ). All else equal, when the wage gap, minus the costs associated with moving between origin and destination, is high, these models predict large flows of labor migrants. In equilibrium, as more individuals move from origin to destination countries, the wage differential narrows, which in turn leads to zero net migration (Lewis, 1954 ; Harris & Todaro, 1970 ). Traditional models predict a negative monotonic relationship between the wage gap and the number of migrants (e.g., Sjaastad, 1962 ). However, the predictions of neoclassical models are not well supported by the empirical record. Empirical evidence shows that, at least in a cross-section, the relationship between economic development and migration is more akin to an inverted U. For countries with low levels of per capita income, we observe little migration due to a liquidity constraint: at this end of the income distribution, individuals do not have sufficient resources to cover even minor costs associated with moving abroad. Increasing income helps to decrease this constraint, and consequently we observe increased levels of emigration as incomes rise (de Haas, 2007 ). This effect, however, is not monotonic: as countries reach middle-income status, declining wage differentials lead to flattening rates of emigration, and then decreasing rates as countries enter later stages of economic development. 3

Some research explains this curvilinear relationship by focusing on the interaction between emigration incentives and constraints : for example, increased income initially makes migration more affordable (reduces constraints), but also simultaneously reduces the relative economic benefits of migrating as the wage differential narrows (as potential migrants now have the financial capacity to enhance local amenities) (Dao, Docquier, Parsons, & Peri, 2016 ). The theoretical underpinnings of this interaction, however, are not without controversy. Clemens identifies several classes of theory that attempt to explain this curvilinear relationship—a relationship that has been referred to in the literature as the mobility transition (Clemens, 2014 ). These theories include: demographic changes resulting from development that also favor emigration up to a point (Easterlin, 1961 ; Tomaske, 1971 ), the loosening of credit restraints on would-be migrants (Vanderkamp, 1971 ; Hatton & Williamson, 1994 ), a breakdown of information barriers via the building of transnational social networks (Epstein, 2008 ), structural economic changes in the development process that result in worker dislocation (Zelinsky, 1971 ; Massey, 1988 ), the dynamics of economic inequality and relative deprivation (Stark, 1984 ; Stark & Yitzhaki, 1988 ; Stark & Taylor, 1991 ), and changing immigration policies in destination countries toward increasingly wealthy countries (Clemens, 2014 ). While each of these play some role in the mobility transition curve, Dao et al. ( 2016 ) run an empirical horse race between numerous explanations and find that changing skill composition resulting from economic development is the most substantively important driver. Economic development is correlated with an increase in a country’s level of education; an increase in the level of education, in turn, is correlated with increased emigration. However, traditional explanations involving microeconomic drivers such as income, credit constraints, and economic inequality remain important factors (Dao et al., 2016 ). The diversity of explanations offered for the mobility transition curve indicates that while most research agrees the inverted-U relationship is an accurate empirical portrayal of the relationship between development and migration, little theoretical agreement exists on what drives this relationship. Complicating this disagreement is the difficulty of empirically disentangling highly correlated factors such as income, skill composition, and demographic trends in order to identify robust causal relationships.

Political Conditions at the Origin

While there is a scholarly consensus around the mobility transition and the role of economic conditions, emerging research suggests that the political environment in the origin country may also be salient. We do not refer here to forced migration, such as in the case of those who leave because they are fleeing political persecution or violent conflict. Rather, we focus on political conditions in the homeland that influence a potential migrant’s decision to emigrate voluntarily. Interpretations of how, and the extent to which, political conditions in origin countries (independent of economic conditions) influence the decision to migrate have been heavily influenced by Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” framework (Hirschman, 1970 , 1978 ). Hirschman argues that the opportunity to exit—to exit a firm, an organization, or a country—places pressure on the local authorities; voting with one’s feet forces organizations to reassess their operations.

When applied to the politics of emigration, Hirschman’s framework generates two different hypotheses. On the one hand, politicians may allow, encourage, or force the emigration of groups that oppose the regime as a political safety valve of sorts. This provides the government with a mechanism with which to manage potential political challengers by encouraging their exit. On the other hand, politicians—especially those in autocracies—may actively work to prevent exit because they fear the emigration of economic elites, the highly skilled, and others who have resources vital to the survival of the regime. 4

A small number of studies investigate how local-level, rather than national, political circumstances affect a potential migrant’s calculus. The limited empirical evidence currently available suggests that local conditions are substantively important determinants of the emigration decision. When individuals are highly satisfied with local amenities such as their own standard of living, quality of public services, and overall sense of physical security, they express far less intention to migrate compared with highly dissatisfied individuals (Dustmann & Okatenko, 2014 ). Furthermore, availability of public transport and access to better education facilities decreases the propensity to express an intention to emigrate (Cazzuffi & Modrego, 2018 ). This relationship holds across all levels of wealth and economic development, and there is some evidence that satisfaction with local amenities matters as much as, or even more than, income or wealth (Dustmann & Okatenko, 2014 ).

Political corruption, on both national and local levels, also has substantively important effects on potential migrants, especially those who are highly skilled. Broadly defined as the use of public office for political gain, political corruption operates as both a direct and an indirect factor promoting emigration. 5 Firstly, corruption may have a direct effect on the desire to emigrate in that it can decrease the political and economic power of an individual, leading to a lower standard of living and poorer quality of life in origin countries. If the reduction in life satisfaction resulting from corruption is sufficiently high—either by itself or in combination with other “push” factors—then the exit option becomes more attractive (Cooray & Schneider, 2016 ). Secondly, corruption also operates through indirect channels that influence other push factors. Given the large literature on how political corruption influences a number of development outcomes, it is conceivable that corruption affects the decision-making process of a potential migrant through its negative effect on social spending, education, and public health (Mo, 2001 ; Mauro, 1998 ; Gupta, Davoodi, & Thigonson, 2001 ).

The combination of its direct and indirect impacts means that corruption could be a significant part of a migrant’s decision-making process. At present there is limited work exploring this question, and the research does not yield a consensus. Some scholars argue that political corruption has no substantive effect on total bilateral migration, but that it does encourage migration among the highly skilled (Dimant, Krieger, & Meierrieks, 2013 ). This is the case, the argument goes, because corruption causes the greatest relative harm to the utility of those who have invested in human capital, who migrate to escape the negative effect on their fixed investment. In contrast, others find that a high level of corruption does increase emigration at the aggregate level (Poprawe, 2015 ). More nuanced arguments take into account the intensity of corruption: low to moderate levels of corruption lead to increased emigration of all groups, and especially of the highly skilled. But at high levels of corruption, emigration begins to decrease, indicating that intense corruption can act as a mobility constraint (Cooray & Schneider, 2016 ). All of these existing accounts, however, employ state-level measures of corruption by non-governmental organizations, such as those produced by Transparency International. Scholars have yet to harness micro-level survey data to explore the influence of personal corruption perception on the individual’s decision-making process.

The Land of Hopes and Dreams

Given that an individual has decided to emigrate, the next decision point is to choose a destination country. Advanced industrial democracies, such as those in the OECD, are major migrant-receiving countries, but so are Russia and several Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (World Bank, 2016 ). A country’s constellation of political, economic, and social attributes is crucial to understanding an emigrant’s choice of destination. Potential migrants weigh all of these factors simultaneously when choosing a destination: will the destination allow political rights for the migrant and their children, is access to the labor market possible, and does the destination provide an opportunity for reunification with friends and family? In this section we focus on the non-economic factors that draw migrants to certain countries over others. In addition, we emphasize how skill level adds layers of complexity to a migrant’s calculus.

Political Environment, Both Formal and Informal

As noted earlier, traditional neoclassical models and their extensions place wage differentials and associated economic variables at the heart of a migrant’s choice. Gravity models posit that migrants choose a destination country based on their expected income—which itself is a function of the wage rate and the probability of finding employment in the destination—less the costs associated with moving (Ravenstein, 1885 ; Todaro, 1969 ; Borjas, 1989 ). A rigid focus on economic factors, however, blinds us to the empirical reality that a destination country’s political environment influences what destination a migrant chooses (Borjas, 1989 ). A country’s legal and political rights structure for migrants, as well as its level of tolerance for newcomers, is critical to migrants discriminating between an array of potential destinations. Fitzgerald, Leblang, and Teets ( 2014 ) argue, for example, that states with restrictive citizenship policies and strong radical right anti-immigrant parties will receive fewer migrants, while states with relatively liberal citizenship requirements and weak radical right political movements will receive more migrants. In the rational actor framework, migrants seek countries with hospitable political environments to maximize both their political representation in government and their access to labor market opportunities as a result of citizenship rights and social acceptance (Fitzgerald et al., 2014 ).

Using a broad sample of origin countries and 18 destination countries, they find that relative restrictiveness of citizenship policies and level of domestic support for the radical right are substantively important determinants of global migratory flows. Further, they find that these political variables condition a migrant’s choice of destination: the relative importance of economic factors such as the unemployment rate or the wage differential diminishes as a destination country’s political environment becomes more open for migrants. In other words, when migrants are choosing a destination country, political considerations may trump economic ones—a finding that is an important amendment to the primarily economics-focused calculus of the initial stage of the immigration decision.

However, prior to choosing and entering a destination country, a migrant must also navigate a country’s immigration policy—the regulation of both migrant entry and the rights and status of current migrants. While it is often assumed that a relatively more restrictive immigration policy deters entry, and vice versa, a lack of quantitative data has limited the ability of scholars to confirm this intuition cross-nationally. Money ( 1999 ) emphasizes that the policy output of immigration politics does not necessarily correlate with the outcome of international migrant flows. There are a number of unanswered questions in this field, including: is immigration policy a meaningful determinant of global flows of migration? Do certain kinds of immigration policies matter more than others? How does immigration policy interact with other political and economic factors, such as unemployment and social networks?

Only a handful of studies analyze whether or not immigration policy is a significant determinant of the size and character of migratory flows. Perhaps the most prominent answer to this question is the “gap hypothesis,” which posits that immigration rates continue to increase despite increasingly restrictive immigration policies in advanced countries (Cornelius & Tsuda, 2004 ). Some subsequent work seems to grant support to the gap hypothesis, indicating that immigration policy may not be a relevant factor and that national sovereignty as it relates to dictating migrant inflows has eroded significantly (Sassen, 1996 ; Castles, 2004 ). The gap hypothesis is not without its critics, with other scholars arguing that the existing empirical evidence actually lends it little or no support (Messina, 2007 ).

A more recent body of literature does indicate that immigration policy matters. Brücker and Schröder ( 2011 ), for example, find that immigration policies built to attract highly skilled migrants lead to higher admittance rates. They also show that diffusion processes cause neighboring countries to implement similar policy measures. Ortega and Peri ( 2013 ), in contrast to the gap hypothesis literature, find that restrictive immigration policy indeed reduces migrant inflows. But immigration policy can also have unintended effects on international migration: when entry requirements increase, migrant inflows decrease, but migrant outflows also decrease (Czaika & de Haas, 2016 ). This indicates that restrictive immigration policy may also lead to reduced circular migrant flows and encourage long-term settlement in destination countries.

Disaggregating immigration policy into its different components provides a clearer picture of how immigration policy may matter, and whether certain components matter more than others. Immigration policy is composed of both external and internal regulations. External regulations refer to policies that control migrant entry, such as eligibility requirements for migrants and additional conditions of entry. Internal regulations refer to policies that apply to migrants who have already gained status in the country, such as the security of a migrant’s legal status and the rights they are afforded. Helbling and Leblang ( 2017 ), using a comprehensive data set of bilateral migrant flows and the Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) data set, find that, in general, external regulations prove slightly more important in understanding migrant inflows (Helbling, Bjerre, Römer, & Zobel, 2017 ). This indicates that potential migrants focus more on how to cross borders, and less on the security of their status and rights once they settle. They do find, however, that both external and internal components of immigration are substantively important to international migrant flows.

The effects of policy, however, cannot be understood in isolation from other drivers of migration. Firstly, poor economic conditions and restrictive immigration policy are mutually reinforcing: when the unemployment rate is elevated, restrictive policies are more effective in deterring migrant flows. An increase in policy effectiveness in poor economic conditions suggests that states care more about deterring immigration when the economy is performing poorly. Secondly, a destination country’s restrictive immigration policy is more effective when migrants come from origin countries that have a common colonial heritage. This suggests that cultural similarities and migrant networks help to spread information about the immigration policy environment in the destination country. Social networks prove to be crucial in determining how much migrants know about the immigration policies of destination countries, regardless of other cultural factors such as colonial heritage or common language (Helbling & Leblang, 2017 ). In summary, more recent work supports the idea that immigration policy of destination countries exerts a significant influence on both the size and character of international migration flows. Much work remains to be done in terms of understanding the nuances of specific immigration policy components, the effect of policy change over time, and through what mechanisms immigration policy operates.

Transnational Social Networks

None of this should be taken to suggest that only political and economic considerations matter when a potential migrant contemplates a potential destination; perhaps one of the biggest contributions to the study of bilateral migration is the role played by transnational social networks. Migrating is a risky undertaking, and to minimize that risk, migrants are more likely to move to destinations where they can “readily tap into networks of co-ethnics” (Fitzgerald et al., 2014 , p. 410). Dense networks of co-ethnics not only help provide information about economic opportunities, but also serve as a social safety net which, in turn, helps decrease the risks associated with migration, including, but not limited to, finding housing and integrating into a new community (Massey, 1988 ; Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Portes, 1995 ; Massey et al., 1993 ; Faist, 2000 ; Sassen, 1995 ; Light, Bernard, & Kim, 1999 ). Having a transnational network of family members is quite important to destination choice; if a destination country has an immigration policy that emphasizes family reunification, migrants can use their familial connections to gain economically valuable permanent resident or citizenship status more easily than in other countries (Massey et al., 1993 , p. 450; Helbing & Leblang, 2017 ). When the migrant is comparing potential destinations, countries in which that migrant has a strong social network will be heavily favored in a cost–benefit analysis.

Note, however, that even outside of a strict rational actor framework with perfect information, transnational social networks still may be quite salient to destination choice. An interesting alternative hypothesis for the patterns we observe draws on theories from financial market behavior which focus on herding. Migrants choosing a destination observe the decisions of their co-ethnics who previously migrated and assume that those decisions were based on a relevant set of information, such as job opportunities or social tolerance of migrants. New migrants then choose the same destination as their co-ethnics not based on actual exchanges of valuable information, but based solely on the assumption that previous migration decisions were based on rational calculation (Epstein & Gang, 2006 ; Epstein, 2008 ). This is a classic example of herding, and the existing empirical evidence on the importance of transnational social networks cannot invalidate this alternative hypothesis. One could also explain social network effects through the lens of cumulative causation or feedback loops: the initial existence of connections in destination countries makes the act of migration less risky and attracts additional co-ethnics. This further expands migrant networks in a destination, further decreasing risk for future waves of migrants, and so on (Massey, 1990 ; Fussel & Massey, 2004 ; Fussel, 2010 ).

No matter the pathway by which social networks operate, the empirical evidence indicates that they are one of the most important determinants of destination choice. Potential migrants from Mexico, for example, who are able to tap into existing networks in the United States face lower direct, opportunity, and psychological costs of international migration (Massey & Garcia España, 1987 ). This same relationship holds in the European context; a study of Bulgarian and Italian migrants indicates that those with “social capital” in a destination community are more likely to migrate and to choose that particular destination (Haug, 2008 ). Studies that are more broadly cross-national in nature also confirm the social network hypothesis across a range of contexts and time periods (e.g., Clark et al., 2007 ; Hatton & Williamson, 2011 ; Fitzgerald et al., 2014 ).

Despite the importance of social networks, it is, again, important to qualify their role in framing the choice of destinations. It seems that the existence of co-ethnics in destination countries most strongly influences emigration when they are relatively few in number. Clark et al. ( 2007 ), in their study of migration to the United States, find that the “friends and relatives effect” falls to zero once the migrant stock in the United States reaches 8.3% of the source-country population. In addition, social networks alone cannot explain destination choice because their explanatory power is context-dependent. For instance, restrictive immigration policies limiting legal migration channels and family reunification may dampen the effectiveness of networks (Böcker, 1994 ; Collyer, 2006 ). Social networks are not an independent force, but also interact with economic and political realities to produce the global migration patterns we observe.

The Lens of Skill

For ease of presentation, we have up to now treated migrants as a relatively homogeneous group that faces similar push and pull factors throughout the decision-making process. Of course, not all migrants experience the same economic, political, and social incentives in the same way at each stage of the decision-making process. Perhaps the most salient differentiating feature of migrants is skill or education level. Generally, one can discuss a spectrum of skill and education level for current migrants, from relatively less educated (having attained a high school degree or less) to relatively more educated (having attained a college or post-graduate degree). The factors presented here that influence destination choice interact with a migrant’s skill level to produce differing destination choice patterns.

A migrant’s level of education, or human capital, often serves as a filter for the political treatment he or she anticipates in a particular destination country. For instance, the American public has a favorable view of highly educated migrants who hold higher-status jobs, while simultaneously having an opposite view of migrants who have less job training and do not hold a college degree (Hainmueller & Hiscox, 2010 ; Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2015 ). Indeed, the political discourse surrounding migration often emphasizes skill level and education as markers of migrants who “should be” admitted, across both countries and the ideological spectrum. 6 While political tolerance may be a condition of entry for migrants in the aggregate, the relatively privileged status of highly educated and skilled migrants in most destination countries may mean that this condition is not as salient.

While it is still an open question to what extent immigration policy influences international migration, it is clear that not all migrants face evenly applied migration restrictions. Most attractive destination countries have policies that explicitly favor highly skilled migrants, since these individuals often fill labor shortages in advanced industries such as high technology and applied science. Countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand all employ so-called “points-based” immigration systems in which those with advanced degrees and needed skills are institutionally favored for legal entry (Papademetriou & Sumption, 2011 ). Meanwhile, the United States maintains the H-1B visa program, which is restricted by educational attainment and can only be used to fill jobs in which no native talent is available (USCIS). Even if destination countries decide to adopt more restrictive immigration policies, the move toward restriction has typically been focused on low-skilled migrants (Peters, 2017 ). In other words, even if immigration policy worldwide becomes more restrictive, this will almost certainly not occur at the expense of highly skilled migrants and will not prevent them choosing their most preferred destination.

Bring It on Home to Me

This article began by asserting that international labor migration is an important piece of globalization, as significant as cross-border flows of capital, goods, and services. This section argues that migrant flows enhance flows of capital and commodities. Uniquely modern conditions such as advanced telecommunications, affordable and efficient international travel, and the liberalization of financial flows mean that diasporas—populations of migrants living outside their countries of origin—and home countries often re-engage with each other (Vertovec, 2004 ; Waldinger, 2008 ). This section reviews some of the newest and most thought-provoking research on international labor migration, research that explores diaspora re-engagement and how that re-engagement alters international flows of income, portfolio and foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, and migratory flows themselves.

Remittances

As previously argued, migration is often driven by the prospect of higher wages. Rational, utility-maximizing migrants incur the cost of migration in order to earn increased income that they could not earn at home. But when migrants obtain higher wages, this additional increment to income is not always designated for individual consumption. Often, migrants use their new income to send remittances, direct transfers of money from one individual to another across national borders. Once a marginal financial flow, in 2015 remittances totaled $431 billion, far outpacing foreign aid ($135 billion) and nearly passing private debt and portfolio equity ($443 billion). More than 70% of total global remittances flow into developing countries (World Bank, 2016 ). In comparison with other financial flows such as portfolio investment and FDI, remittances are more impervious to economic crises, suggesting that they may be a countercyclical force to global downturns (Leblang, 2017 ).

Remittances represent one of the most common ways in which migrants re-engage with their homeland and alter both global income flows and distribution. Why do migrants surrender large portions of their new income, supposedly the very reason they migrated in the first place, to their families back home? New economics of labor migration (NELM) theory argues that immigration itself is motivated by a family’s need or demand for remittances—that remittances are an integral part of a family’s strategy for diversifying household financial risk (Stark & Bloom, 1985 ). Remittances “are a manifestation of informal contractual agreements between migrants and the households from which they move,” indicating that remitting is not an individual-level or purely altruistic action but rather occurs in a larger social context, that of one’s immediate or extended family (European Asylum Support Office, 2016 , p. 15).

The impact of migrant remittances on countries of origin is multifaceted yet somewhat ambiguous. Most scholarly work focuses on whether remittances positively or negatively influence existing economic conditions. A number of studies find that remittances modestly reduce poverty levels in developing countries (Adams & Page, 2005 ; Yang & Martinez, 2006 ; Acosta, Calderon, Fajnzybler, & Lopez, 2008 ; Lokshin, Bontch-Osmolovski, & Glinskaya, 2010 ). On other measures of economic well-being, such as growth, inequality, and health, the literature is quite mixed and no definitive conclusions can be drawn. For instance, some studies find that remittances encourage investment in human capital (Yang, 2008 ; Adams & Cuecuecha, 2010 ), while others find no such effect and suggest that families typically spend remittances on non-productive consumption goods (Chami, Fullenkamp, & Jahjah, 2003 ). Here we can only scratch the surface of the empirical work on remittances and economic outcomes. 7

Some of the most recent research in the field argues that remittances have a distinct political dimension, affecting regime support in developing countries and altering the conditions in which elections are held. Ahmed ( 2012 ), grouping remittances with foreign aid, argues that increased remittances allow autocratic governments to extend their tenure in office. These governments can strategically channel unearned government and household income to finance political patronage networks, which leads to a reduced likelihood of autocratic turnover, regime collapse, and mass protests against the regime. More recent research posits nearly the exact opposite: remittances are linked to a greater likelihood of democratization under autocratic regimes. Escriba-Folch, Meseguer, and Wright ( 2015 ) argue that since remittances directly increase household incomes, they reduce voter reliance on political patronage networks, undermining a key tool of autocratic stability.

Remittances may also play an important role in countries with democratic institutions, yet more research is needed to fully understand the conditions under which they matter and their substantive impact. Particularly, remittances may alter the dynamics of an election as an additional and external financial flow. There is evidence of political remittance cycles : the value of remittances spikes in the run-up to elections in developing countries. The total value of remittances to the average developing country increases by 6.6% during election years, and by 12% in elections in which no incumbent or named successor is running (O’Mahony, 2012 ). The effect is even larger in the poorest of developing countries. Finer-grained tests of this hypothesis provide additional support: using monthly and quarterly data confirms the existence of political remittance cycles, as well as using subnational rather than cross-national data (Nyblade & O’Mahony, 2014 ). However, these studies do not reveal why remittances spike, or what the effects of that spike are on electoral outcomes such as vote share, campaign financing, and political strategy.

Remittances represent a massive international financial flow that warrants more scholarly attention. While there are numerous studies on the relationship between remittances and key economic indicators, there remains much room for further work on their relationship to political outcomes in developing countries. Do remittances hasten the downfall of autocratic regimes, or do they contribute to autocratic stability? In democratic contexts, do remittances substantively influence electoral outcomes, and if so, which outcomes and how? Finally, do remittances prevent even more migration because they allow one “breadwinner from abroad” to provide for the household that remains in the homeland? While data limitations are formidable, these questions are important to the study of both international and comparative political economy.

Bilateral Trade

The argument that migrant or co-ethnic networks play an important role in international economic exchange is not novel. Greif ( 1989 , 1993 ) illustrates the role that the Maghrebi traders of the 11th century played in providing informal institutional guarantees that facilitated trade. This is but a single example. Cowen’s historical survey identifies not only the Phoenicians but also the “Spanish Jews [who] were indispensable for international commerce in the Middle Ages. The Armenians controlled the overland route between the Orient and Europe as late as the nineteenth century . Lebanese Christians developed trade between the various parts of the Ottoman empire” (Cowen, 1997 , p. 170). Rauch and Trindade ( 2002 ) provide robust empirical evidence linking the Chinese diaspora to patterns of imports and exports with their home country.

A variety of case studies document the importance of migrant networks in helping overcome problems of information asymmetries. In his study of Indian expatriates residing in the United States, Kapur ( 2014 ) documents how that community provides U.S. investors with a signal of the work ethic, labor quality, and business culture that exists in India. Likewise, Weidenbaum and Hughes ( 1996 ) chronicle the Bamboo Network—the linkages between ethnic Chinese living outside mainland China and their homeland—and how these linkages provide superior access to information and opportunities for investment.

Connections between migrant communities across countries affect cross-national investment even when these connections do not provide information about investment opportunities. In his work on the Maghrebi traders of the 11th century , Greif argues that this trading network was effective because it was able to credibly threaten collective punishment by all merchants if even one of them defected (Greif, 1989 , 1993 ). Grief shows that this co-ethnic network was able to share information regarding the past actions of actors (they could communicate a reputation)—something that was essential for the efficient functioning of markets in the absence of formal legal rules. Weidenbaum and Hughes reach a similar conclusion about the effectiveness of the Bamboo Network, remarking that “if a business owner violates an agreement, he is blacklisted. This is far worse than being sued, because the entire Chinese networks will refrain from doing business with the guilty party” (Hughes, 1996 , p. 51).

Migrants not only alter the flow of income by remitting to their countries of origin, but also influence patterns of international portfolio investment and FDI. Most existing literature on international capital allocation emphasizes monadic factors such as the importance of credible commitments and state institutional quality, failing to address explicitly dyadic phenomena that may also drive investment. Diaspora networks, in particular, facilitate cross-border investment in a number of ways. They foster a higher degree of familiarity between home and host countries, leading to a greater preference for investment in specific countries. Diaspora networks can also decrease information asymmetries in highly uncertain international capital markets in two ways. Firstly, they can provide investors with salient information about their homeland, such as consumer tastes, that can influence investment decision-making. Secondly, they can share knowledge about investment opportunities, regulation and procedures, and customs that decrease transaction costs associated with cross-border investment (Leblang, 2010 ). This place of importance for migrants suggests to the broader international political economy literature the importance of non-institutional mechanisms for channeling economic activity.

Although the hypothesized link between migrants and international investment has only recently been identified, the quantitative evidence available supports that hypothesis. Leblang ( 2010 ), using dyadic cross-sectional data, finds that diaspora networks “have both a substantively significant effect and a statistically significant effect on cross-border investment,” including international portfolio investment and FDI (p. 584). The effect of bilateral migratory flows correlates positively with the degree of information asymmetry: when informational imperfections are more pervasive in a dyad, migrants (especially the highly skilled) play a disproportionately large role in international capital allocation (Kugler, Levinthal, & Rapoport, 2017 ). Other quantitative studies find substantively similar results for FDI alone (e.g., Javorcik, Özden, Spatareanu, & Neagu, 2011 ; Aubry, Rapoport, & Reshef, 2016 ).

Many questions still remain unanswered. Firstly, does the effect of migrants on investment follow the waves of the global economy, or is it countercyclical as remittances have been shown to be? Secondly, how does this additional investment, facilitated by migrants, affect socioeconomic outcomes such as inequality, poverty, and economic development (Leblang, 2010 )? Does the participation of migrants lead to more successful FDI projects in developing countries because of their ability to break down information barriers? Within portfolio investment, do migrants lead to a preference for certain asset classes over others, and if so, what are the effects on bilateral and international capital markets? These are just a few directions in an area ripe for additional research.

Return Migration and Dual Citizenship

Besides financial flows, migrants themselves directly contribute to global flows of capital by returning to their countries of origin in large numbers. This phenomenon of return migration—or circular migration—can come in a few temporal forms, including long-term migration followed by a permanent return to a country of origin, or repeat migration in which a migrant regularly moves between destination and origin countries (Dumont & Spielvogel, 2008 ). While comparable data on return migration is scarce, some reports suggest that 20% to 50% of all immigrants leave their destination country within five years after their arrival (e.g., Borjas & Bratsberg, 1996 ; Aydemir & Robinson, 2008 ; Bratsberg, Raaum, & Sørlie, 2007 ; Dustmann & Weiss, 2007 ). An independent theoretical and empirical account of return migration does not yet exist in the literature and is beyond the scope of this paper. But in the rational actor framework, motivations to return home include a failure to realize the expected benefits of migration, changing preferences toward a migrant’s home country, achievement of a savings or other economic goal, or the opening of additional employment opportunities back home due to newly acquired experience or greater levels of economic development (Dumont & Spielvogel, 2008 ).

While most migration literature treats the country of origin as a passive actor that only provides the conditions for migration, new literature on return migration gives home country policies pride of place. Origin countries can craft policies that encourage diaspora re-engagement, incentivizing individuals to return home. Dual citizenship, for example, is an extension of extraterritorial rights, allowing migrants to retain full legal status in their home country. Dual citizenship “decreases the transaction costs associated with entering a host country’s labor market and makes it easier for migrants to return home” (Leblang, 2017 , p. 77). This leads migrants to invest their financial resources in the form of remittances back home as well as their valuable human capital. When states provide such extraterritorial rights, expatriates are 10% more likely to remit and 3% more likely to return home. Dual citizenship is also associated with a doubling of the dollar amount of remittances received by a home country (Leblang, 2017 ). These striking results suggest that in addition to the power of migrants to affect cross-border flows of money and people, countries of origin can also play a significant role.

Conclusion and Future Directions

This brief article has attempted to synthesize a broad range of literature from political science, economics, sociology, migration studies, and more to construct an account of international labor migration. To do so, the migratory process was broken down into distinct stages and decision points, focusing particularly on the decision to migrate, destination choice, and the re-engagement of migrants with their homeland. In doing so, the article also discussed the interlinkages of international migration with other fields of study in international political economy, including cross-border financial flows, trade, and investment. Through a multiplicity of approaches, we have gained a greater understanding of why people decide to move, why they decide to move to one country over another, and how and why they engage with the global economy and their homeland. Despite this intellectual progress, there remain many paths for future research at each stage of the migratory process; we highlight just a few of them here.

We know that income differentials, social ties, and local political conditions are important variables influencing the migration process. Yet the question remains: why do a small but growing number of people choose to leave while the overwhelming majority of people remain in their country of birth? Here, individual- or family-level subjective characteristics may be significant. There are a handful of observational studies that explore the relationship between subjective well-being or life satisfaction and the intention to migrate, with the nascent consensus being that life dissatisfaction increases the intention to migrate (Cai, Esipova, Oppenheimer, & Feng, 2014 ; Otrachshenko & Popova, 2014 ; Nikolova & Graham, 2015 ). But more research on intrinsic or subjective measures is needed to understand (a) their independent importance more fully and (b) how they interact with objective economic, political, and social factors. For instance, do those who are more optimistic migrate in larger numbers? Do minority individuals who feel they live in an environment in which diversity is not accepted feel a greater urge to leave home? Synthesizing these types of subjective variables and perceptions with the more prominent gravity-style models could result in a more complete picture of the international migration process.

For the “typical” migrant, one who is relatively less educated than the population in the chosen destination and does not have specialized skills, social networks are key to minimizing the risk of migrating and quickly tapping into economic opportunities in destination countries. Does this remain true for those who are highly educated? Although little empirical research exists on the topic, greater human capital and often-accompanying financial resources may operate as a substitute for the advantages offered by social networks, such as housing, overcoming linguistic barriers, and finding gainful employment. This would indicate that the “friends and family effect” is not as influential for this subset of migrants. Economic considerations, such as which destination offers the largest relative wage differential, or political considerations, such as the ease of quickly acquiring full citizenship rights, may matter more for the highly skilled. Neoclassical economic models of migration may best capture the behavior of migrants who hold human capital and who have the financial resources to independently migrate in a way that maximizes income or utility more broadly.

Since we have focused on international migration as a series of discrete decision points in this article, we have perhaps underemphasized the complexity of the physical migration process. In reality, migrants often do not pick a country and travel directly there, but travel through (perhaps several) countries of transit such as Mexico, Morocco, or Turkey along the way (Angel Castillo, 2006 ; Natter, 2013 ; Icduygu, 2005 ). There is little existing theoretical work to understand the role of transit countries in the migratory process, with much of it focusing on the potential for cooperation between destination and transit countries in managing primarily illegal immigration (Kahana & Lecker, 2005 ; Djajic & Michael, 2014 ; Djajic & Michael, 2016 ). Another related strand of the literature focuses on how wealthy destination countries are “externalizing” their immigration policy, encompassing a broader part of the migratory process than simply crossing a physically demarcated border (Duvell, 2012 ; Menjivar, 2014 ). But many questions remain, such as the following: how do we understand those who desire to enter, say, the United States, but instead relocate permanently to Mexico along the way? How do countries of transit handle the pressure of transit migrants, and how does this affect economic and political outcomes in these countries?

Finally, the focus of nearly all literature on international migration (and this article as a byproduct) implicitly views advanced economies as the only prominent destinations. However, this belies the fact that 38% of all migration stays within the “Global South” (World Bank, 2016 ). While there is certainly some literature on this phenomenon (see Ratha & Shaw, 2007 ; Gindling, 2009 ; Hujo & Piper, 2007 ), international political economy scholars have yet to sufficiently tackle this topic. The overarching research question here is: do the same push and pull factors that influence the decision to migrate and destination choice apply to those who migrate within the Global South? Do we need to construct new theories of international migration with less emphasis on factors such as wage differentials and political tolerance, or are these sufficient to understand this facet of the phenomenon? If we fail to answer these questions, we may miss explaining a significant proportion of international migration with its own consequences and policy implications.

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Severin, T. , & Martin, M. (2018). German Parties Edge Closer to Coalition with Migration Deal . Reuters, February 2.
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1. Our use of the term international labor migration follows academic and legal conventions; we use the term migration to refer to the voluntary movement of people across national borders, either in a temporary or permanent fashion. This excludes any discussion of refugees, asylum seekers, or any other groups that are forced to migrate.

2. We do not have space in this article to delve into the theoretical and empirical work unpacking the effect of demographic characteristics—age, gender, marital status, household size, and so forth on the migration decision and on subsequent flows of migrants. For comprehensive reviews, see Lichter ( 1983 ), Morrison and Lichter ( 1988 ); United Nations Population Division ( 2013 ); and Zaiceva and Zimmerman ( 2014 ).

3. Zelinsky ( 1971 ) originally identified this relationship and termed it mobility transition curve . A wealth of empirical work supports Zelinsky’s descriptive theory in a number of contexts (see Akerman, 1976 ; Gould, 1979 ; Hatton & Williamson, 1994 ; and Dao et al., 2016 ).

4. For a review of the arguments as well as some empirical tests, see Miller and Peters ( 2018 ) and Docquier, Lodigiani, Rapoport, and Schiff ( 2018 ).

5. Transparency International. “What is corruption?”

6. For example, former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has called for the United Kingdom to adopt an immigration system that only allows in highly skilled migrants (“UKIP launches immigration policy”). In 2014, US President Barack Obama emphasized that he wanted to attract international students to American universities and that they “create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America” (USA Today: “Full text: Obama’s immigration speech”). A key issue in Germany’s 2018 government formation was the creation of skill-based migration laws (Severin & Martin, 2018 ).

7. For a more comprehensive review, see Rapoport and Docquier ( 2006 ); and Adams ( 2011 ).

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Immigration and Globalization: A Review Essay

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Writing an Immigration Essay: 75 Essay Topic Ideas

The whole world watches the immigration drama that occurs in the USA. Separated families, tears, anger, escalation of antimigration attitudes in society—this all are consequences of immigration regulations.

Writing an essay on immigration may seem difficult enough. However, the IvyPanda team is here to help you. Just keep reading and you’ll find out simple tips to ace your assignment.

Immigration Essay: Research the Problem

Before you start drafting your essay outline, you should understand what is immigration, its causes, forms, and develop your opinion.

What is immigration? This is the process of acquiring permanent residence in a foreign country. And, accordingly, an immigrant is a person who undergoes this process.

Why do people decide to immigrate?

Actually, every person has their own reason. But we gathered most common immigration causes below:

Economics. Most people decide to move to other country when they are not satisfied with conditions in their homeland: lack of jobs, low salaries, high taxes, corruption. All of these make a person seek a better life.
Politics . In some countries, government bans certain parts of population from occupying certain positions, gaining education they want, etc. For example, lists professions and occupations that are prohibited for woman.

Wars. Even though we’re living in the 21st century, wars still occur. And the desire to save immigrants’ families, and escape from death leads to increasing number of refugees.
Human right and freedom. We all want to live in a better place with our loved ones, being able to choose a career, and religion, regardless of our social or marital status. However, some countries ban same-sex marriage, some religions and religious trends other than the dominant ones. There are also a lot of countries where there is no freedom of speech. Imagine that even a short post in your social media account may lead to a prison.
Personal causes. It may be a desire to take the career to the next level, a realisation of childhood dream to live in a certain place, to acquire education in a certain institution or country, etc.

Immigration can be legal and illegal. Legal immigration means that the person is acquiring the residential status in accordance to government regulations. On the other side are immigrants who decide to try and flee to foreign countries illegally .

Is it bad? You have conduct a thorough research and form your opinion.

If you’re doing your research for illegal immigration essay, you should also investigate effects of it. Mostly, it negative impacts on economics. Illegal immigrants take any job that provides an income to support their families. Employers use this labor force without paying any taxes, providing insurance and often pay less than minimum wage. This leads to legal job cuts and lower budget revenues. And, as a result, cuts in social, education, public health, and other important programs occur.

Among other effects, we can name the rise of terrorist and criminal activities. You can explore this topic when writing the immigration essay or paper on terrorism.

Relatively easy way of illegal immigration leads to reduced motivation for legal immigration. It’s cheaper and easier.

If you’re writing the overpopulation essay, you can mention that overpopulation can be both cause and effect. The lack of access to fresh water, poverty, and pollution makes people seek for the better life somewhere else. And, as a consequence, immigration explosions provoke overpopulation, cut of legal jobs, increased pollution in the destination country.

Immigration Essay: Stick to the Structure

Now, let’s get back to the writing. First of all, brainstorm some ideas of your immigration or overpopulation essay. Write them down and then pick the topic that appeals to you the most. Don’t forget to check if there are enough sources for your paper. There are plenty of free essays and examples to help you with all of that.

The next step is to create an essay outline. A typical essay structure consists of introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Even if you need to write a five-paragraph essay, you must include these elements.

First things first, let’s start with the essay introduction. In the intro of any type of essays, you must give a hook to your readers and provide an essay thesis. Engage your readers with a couple of suggestions about the problems of immigrants that you’ve researched.

As for the essay body, its contents may vary depending on the type of assignment. In the argumentative or persuasive essay, you must put several arguments supporting your point of view. In the for and against essay, provide a counterargument after each argument. If you’re writing an opinion essay, express your thoughts and don’t forget to keep a logical flow. Otherwise, your readers will be bored and quickly lose their attention.

As well as the introduction, a conclusion is also a mandatory element. In this part, you must restate thesis and ideas, presented in a body without repeating it. Write it in other words.

Immigration Essay: 65 Topic Ideas

Now you know how to write your essay on immigration. But you may need some ideas. That’s why IvyPanda’s experts prepared some excellent topic ideas and essay samples you may use in your assignment.

All you have to do is just check the list below, pick up ones that you find the most interesting and use them as an inspiration.

So, grab a cup of tasty coffee or tea and choose the immigration, poverty, or overpopulation essay topic:

The Impact of Immigration on the Economy of the USA
Migration, Immigration, and Emigration, and their Effects on Religion, Women, and Minorities in Egypt
Illegal Immigration
Argument for Measures to Control Illegal Immigration
Free-rider problem and illegal immigration
The History of Canada, Its Position on Immigration
Economic Contribution of Slaves and Present Day Legal and Illegal Immigration
Legal Immigration versus Illegal Immigration in America
Crossing Borders: Immigration Issue
Immigration and Crime Rate
Pros and Cons of Immigration for the Immigrants
Immigration Admissions and Control Policies
Immigration and Ethnic Relations
Illegal immigration in the US
World Publics Welcome Global Trade – but not Immigration
Maria Full of Grace and De Nadie: Immigration in Terms of Shots and Angles
World Hunger
History of Indigenous Australians before the arrival of the First Fleet
Legislating homeland security
White Australian Policy
Globalization in Politics and on the World peace
Illegal Migration
Poverty among Women and Aboriginals
The Singer Solution to World Poverty
Poverty in America Rural and Urban Difference
Immigrants on poverty
Effects of Poverty on Immigrant Children
Global Poverty
Ending global poverty
Women Immigrants from Asia
Immigration
Mexican American Discrimination
Citizenship
High Population Growth
Causes and Consequences of Native American Migration
Illegal Immigrants and Amnesty: A Pro Argument
Labor migration and remittances in the middle east
Challenges of the Arab Gulf States
Overpopulation
19th Century Industrialization, Technologies, and Business Strategies
Diverse Backgrounds
A response to the article “Inequality and the American Dream”
Undocumented workers in the United States
Difficulties of a Child in a Foreign Linguistic Environment
Global Population Issues and Population in Our Country
Impact of illegal immigrants on America
The unemployed and illegal immigrants in the United States are more likely to be involved in crime than the employed and legal immigrants
Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants
Dealing with Illegal Immigrants in the US
Should Illegal Immigrants be Deported?
Immigration as political issue in the USA
Immigration policy
The concept of citizenship in the United States
Nation of Immigrants
Anglo-American Western Expansion
Politics of Globalization
Immigration Debate
Recent population trends and their impact on cities and suburbs
Impacts of Overpopulation on the Environment
Bioregionalism
What causes poverty in the world
The Cause and Effect of the Growing Population
Poverty in urban areas
The Worrying Population Statistics
Population Pressure
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Great Read: In Russia, early African American migrants found the good life

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Growing up in the Soviet Union, Emilia Tynes-Mensah did the same things other children did. She read the classics of literary master Alexander Pushkin, listened to the symphonies of Peter Tchaikovsky and heard the propaganda that life here was better than anywhere else.

But in her home, there was American jazz, Thanksgiving celebrations and stories of the struggles facing blacks in the United States. An improvised version of soul food sometimes replaced borscht.

That’s because her father, George Tynes, was an African American agronomist from Virginia who moved to Russia in the 1930s.

Tynes was among hundreds of blacks who traveled to the Soviet Union in the two decades after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Some were hard-core Communists. Others were curious adventurers.

“My father didn’t know anything about this country. He didn’t know what to expect,” said Tynes-Mensah, 73, her mind flying back through the decades as she sat in her Moscow apartment, where black-and-white photos of her parents and children shared space on an antique sideboard with color shots of her grandchildren.

“Everybody who would come to the Soviet Union from America, my father would tell them, ‘Please don’t forget to bring me some records,’ ” Tynes-Mensah said. “He loved Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson. But he also loved classical music and opera and ballet.”

Most of the African Americans who came to Russia were seeking a better life, desperate to flee the social inequality and Depression-era hardships that racked America at the time, said Allison Blakely, professor emeritus of history at Boston University who has written a book on the African American immigrants.

“They were looking for a society where they could escape color prejudice and racism,” Blakely said.

Today, fewer than 50 descendants of these African Americans are believed to still live in Russia. In all, their numbers in the former Soviet republics could be between 100 and 200, according to researchers.

They have become footnotes to African American and Russian history, said Yelena Demikovsky, a New York-based Russian film director and researcher who is making a movie, “Black Russians — The Red Experience,” about the immigrants to the Soviet Union and their descendants.

Officials actively recruited skilled foreign laborers and professionals, Blakely said. About 18,000 Americans answered the call to work in the 1930s, he said. Among them were several hundred African Americans who traveled to the Soviet Union, including dozens who lived there for “the good part of a decade,” Blakely said.

Their ranks included graduates of historically black colleges such as Tuskegee University in Alabama and Virginia’s Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, later called the Hampton Institute. They were engineers, educators, entertainers, journalists, lawyers. The actor-activist Paul Robeson and poet Langston Hughes were among those travelers captivated by communism.

The Soviets gave the African Americans red-carpet treatment, including fat paychecks, subsidized housing and free vacations.

“My father felt the U.S.S.R. treated him better than America,” said Tynes-Mensah, a former university chemistry instructor who was born in the Russian town of Krasnodar and now lives mainly in the United States, spending summers in Russia. “He was happy here.”

A graduate of Wilberforce University in Ohio and a former college football star, Tynes could only find work washing dishes in a restaurant back in America, his daughter recalled. So he jumped at the opportunity to go to Russia, although he never joined the Communist Party, his daughter said.

Tynes was among 11 African American agricultural specialists led by Oliver Golden, an agronomist and Communist from Mississippi, who boarded the German ship Deutschland bound for the Soviet Union in 1931.

Oliver Golden’s granddaughter, Yelena Khanga, 52, a Moscow-based talk show host, recalled how American Communist leaders and black dignitaries visiting Russia would make the Golden household their first stop.

The conversation usually centered on the plight of African Americans, the poor and the working class. Khanga — a world traveler with fans from her high-profile TV job, a swank flat near Red Square and a driver — said she considered such talk “so strange.”

“I would think, ‘Why are we discussing the situation of working-class people in Chicago when we’ll never be in Chicago?’ ” she said.

The experience of African Americans who traveled to or settled in Russia was overwhelmingly positive, descendants said. In turn, they made valuable contributions to Soviet society, said Blakely, the professor. Agricultural specialists helped devise different uses for materials, such as rope made from hemp. They also helped develop plant species that were cheaper to cultivate. Their contributions provided a boost to the Soviet economy.

Tynes, who was sent to various Soviet republics to teach people how to raise ducks and other waterfowl, became a nationally recognized expert on poultry. Golden helped develop a cotton industry in Uzbekistan. And the African Americans introduced Russians to blues and jazz.

“They had an impact disproportionate to their numbers because they were there precisely because the Soviet leadership was trying to use them as a symbol of what they were trying to build in terms of a truly democratic society,” Blakely said. “They were very much in the public eye.”

Within years, however, such attention was unwelcome. During the era of Josef Stalin’s purges, foreigners were viewed with suspicion and non-Soviet citizens were ordered to leave the country, said Demikovsky, the filmmaker.

Khanga said her grandfather escaped being nabbed by the secret police by a fluke. He was away from home the day they came for him. When Golden dutifully turned himself in, he was informed that the quota of arrests for his area had been fulfilled, Khanga said.

The African Americans were shunned during the Cold War, but it was because they were foreigners, not because they were black, their descendants said. But attitudes toward blacks changed in the1960s with the influx of thousands of students from Africa.

Tynes-Mensah, whose mother was Russian-Ukrainian, said she was keenly aware when she was growing up that she was different.

“I was afraid to go out in public,” said the septuagenarian, who has cafe-au-lait skin and a short Afro. “People used to stare. But it was curiosity. They were not angry or aggressive like they are now.”

Today, the acceptance of blacks in Russia is far lower compared with what the African American pioneers experienced, said Tynes-Mensah, who runs a nonprofit called Metis that offers support to mixed-race children, the majority of whose fathers came to Russia from Africa.

“Afro-Russians want to feel Russian, but the society doesn’t want to recognize them as Russian,” she said. “Sometimes [people] will say, ‘Go back to Africa.’ ”

Khanga, a vivacious and charismatic woman who was raised on the gospel songs of Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin, said any obstacles she faced growing up in Russia during the Cold War years were because of her American heritage, not her race.

“I feel comfortable as a black person in Russia,” said Khanga, who is married to a white Russian and has a 12-year-old daughter.

Still, in the 1990s she felt compelled to find her roots. She traveled to Africa and the United States, connected with relatives in New York and Mississippi and wrote a book detailing her family’s story.

“When I’m in America, I feel that I’m African American because I love going to black churches, I love soul food, I love black music, I love lots of things that unite people of color,” Khanga said. “But when I’m in Russia, I feel Russian.”

[email protected]

Twitter: @AMSimmons1

This report was funded by a grant from the International Center for Journalists.

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Featured Publication

Russia: A Migration System with Soviet Roots

Shifting Flows, New Policies after the Breakup of the Soviet Union

Box 1. Russian Migration Statistics: Shifting Methodology and Data Limitations

The way officials measure migration to, from, and within Russia has changed significantly since the early 1990s, with implications for data analysis. Until 1997, every person who changed their place of residence for more than 45 days was counted as a migrant; this included a large number of individuals in the country temporarily for business, study, or personal visits. Starting in 1997, only migrants with permanent-type registration were counted, regardless of the duration of their stay. A further methodological change meant that, beginning in 2011, temporary migrants registering and residing in a place for nine months or more were also included in statistics. This change to the definition of “migrant” is one of the main factors behind the dramatic increase in the number of international migrants recorded starting in 2011 (see Figure 1).

Official data collection on emigration from Russia faces an additional challenge: many emigrants do not declare their move and thus go uncounted in Russian statistics. For instance data collected by 14 former Soviet countries of destination suggest that nine times more people left Russia between 2011 and 2013 than official emigration statistics reflect.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, migration policy in the region underwent serious transformation. The newly independent post-Soviet states began setting up their own institutions to regulate migration and citizenship, and it soon became clear that Russian immigration law needed reform.

The first post-Soviet migration legislation in Russia was devoted to issues of displacement. In 1992, Russia signed the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, and in 1993, it codified elements of these in new laws on refugees and internally displaced persons. In 1993, a law was passed on freedom of movement and choice of residence, expanding opportunities for internal migration, and a 1996 law on procedures for entry and exit enshrined liberal changes that began during perestroika .

Meanwhile, the legal status of foreign citizens was still regulated by a 1981 Soviet law and a 1991 decree that were no longer compatible with the rapidly changing reality. Comprehensive rules on residence and work for foreigners in Russia were lacking, and procedures for issuing residence permits were obsolete. To fill these gaps, Russia implemented a set of commonly used migration management tools, including entry visas, work permits, visas to attract foreign employees, registration of place of stay for citizens and foreigners, and permits for permanent and temporary residence.

Post-Soviet Shuffle

The early 1990s was a period of intense resettlement of Russian-speaking migrants living in other former Soviet republics, particularly the repatriation of people who had left Russia and their descendants. In addition, political reforms in these countries—including laws elevating languages other than Russian to official language status—acted as strong push factors, as did armed conflicts in the region, including in the Caucasus, Moldova, and Tajikistan. These caused a flow into Russia of refugees and internally displaced persons of different ethnic groups. Although ethnic Russians represented about 60 percent of arrivals to Russia, a significant number were Russian speakers of other ethnic groups. In 1994, more than 1.1 million people moved to Russia, and net migration peaked that year at 810,000 (see Figure 1).

Migration also occurred for economic and family reasons. And by the end of the 1990s, Russia faced completely new challenges: rising illegal migration (mainly labor) and threats of terrorism.

Figure 1. Migration Flows to and from Russia, 1991–2015

Note: Immigration figures refer to inflows of migrants who stay in Russia longer than one year. Source: Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), “International Migration,” updated July 8, 2016, available online (in Russian).

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, movement to and from Russia has happened mostly within the region. Nationals from former Soviet republics represented more than 90 percent of all arrivals and more than two-thirds of departures between 1991 and 2015. Russia received about 11.8 million immigrants and lost 5.3 million emigrants over this period. From 2001 to 2010, permanent migration decreased markedly compared to the 1990s.

In the period since 1989, the migrant population in Russia has undergone fundamental changes (see Table 1). The populations from Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states have shrunk, while inflows from Central Asia and Transcaucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) have grown—from 15 percent of all immigrants in the 1990s to almost 40 percent from 2011-15. This shift reflects a gradual transition of temporary labor migrants into permanent immigrants, as well as mortality among elderly immigrants from Ukraine and Belarus. In 2010, the main countries of birth of international migrants were Ukraine (about 3 million people, or 26 percent of all migrants), Kazakhstan (2.5 million, 22 percent), Uzbekistan (1.1 million, 10 percent), and Belarus and Azerbaijan (740,000, or 6.6 percent each).

Table 1. Size and Percent Change (%) of Population in Russia, by Country of Birth, 1989-2010

Source : 1989 Census data from Demoscope Weekly, accessed May 16, 2017, available online (in Russian); 2002 and 2010 All-Russia Census data from Rosstat, accessed May 16, 2017, available online here and here (in Russian).

Temporary Migration: Filling New Labor Demands

Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, labor migration to Russia was modest in scale. Regulation of labor migration began in 1994, when 108,000 work permits were first given to foreigners. From 1995 to 2000, the annual number of work permits fluctuated between 106,000 and 186,000 (see Figure 2). One-third of migrant workers came from Ukraine, and more than half from countries outside the former Soviet Union, mainly China, Turkey, and former Yugoslav countries. The number of workers from Central Asian states was small until the late 1990s, as was the number from the countries of Transcaucasia.

Figure 2. Russian Employment Permits Issued to Foreign Workers, 1994-2015

Note: Beginning in 2010, these include patents and permits for highly skilled workers. Source: Unpublished reports obtained by the authors from Rosstat and the former Federal Migration Service of Russia (now the Directorate General on Migration Issues in the Ministry of Interior).

In the early post-Soviet years, it was difficult to draw a clear line between temporary and permanent labor migration, and between the legal and illegal employment of immigrants from the former Soviet republics. This was due to the still-porous nature of borders, the large number of people with unresolved citizenship (i.e., bearing Soviet-era passports), and a lack of laws governing the legal status of foreigners. A new understanding of labor migration came at the beginning of the 21st century, when an improving Russian economy led to increased demand for labor, especially in construction, transport, and services. Citizens of other former Soviet republics that were not faring as well economically (except for Kazakhstan) were drawn to Russia in search of higher salaries.

Before long, new laws and institutions were implemented to more precisely define the legal status of labor migrants and to oversee labor migration management. A 2002 law standardized the registration and issuance of work permits, resulting in an increase from 175,000 labor migrants in 2001 to 570,000 in 2006. Despite this heightened demand for (and supply of) labor, the work permits process proved cumbersome and the effects were felt particularly strongly by migrants from former Soviet states who previously had enjoyed relatively free movement—as well as by their employers. Foreign-born individuals could only obtain a work permit with the invitation of an employer, who was first required to obtain a license for hiring foreign nationals. As a result, most migrant workers from former Soviet republics worked without registration, aided by the fact they were entitled to visa-free entry and could stay in Russia for up to 90 days and extend the period anew simply by leaving and immediately re-entering the country. Meanwhile, citizens of countries outside the former Soviet Union accounted for a disproportionately large share (more than half) of all authorized foreign workers.

Curbing Illegal Immigration

Between 1998 and 2000, 1.5 million migrants resided in Russia illegally—a number that swelled to between 3 million and 5 million in the early 2000s. In an effort to reduce illegal immigration, the government simplified the procedure for obtaining work permits and registering temporary residence for migrants from former Soviet countries. Starting in 2007, citizens of countries with visa-free entry could apply for a permit without a sponsoring employer, while nationals of other states required an employer invitation. Meanwhile, the government also introduced quotas on the number of permits issued to migrants traveling visa free. The changes allowed hundreds of thousands of people to regularize their status, and work permit grants doubled between 2006 and 2007, from 570,000 to 1.2 million. As a result, the authorized share of the temporary migrant-workforce rose to 35-40 percent in 2007, up from 5-10 percent in 2000. By 2007, former Soviet countries accounted for almost three-quarters of all work permits.

Opening New Labor Channels

In 2010, migration authorities introduced two new ways to access the labor market: a “patent” system for citizens of former Soviet countries with visa-free entry, and simplified rules for the recruitment of highly qualified specialists.

Initially, the patent allowed immigrants to perform domestic work in private households, and was not limited by quota. Affordable monthly payments (equivalent to about US$27, from 2010 to 2014) made patents a convenient and popular way to live and work lawfully in Russia. In 2014, 2.4 million patents were issued, exceeding the number of work permits by almost 1 million. In 2015, the patent system was expanded to cover employment for entrepreneurs and companies. At the same time, regional authorities were allowed to establish their own patent fees. Moscow set one of the highest fees, which stood at 4,200 rubles (about US$73) in late 2015-16.

Foreign highly skilled specialists make up a very small group, and most are from countries whose citizens require a visa to enter Russia. Wages vary by category of worker: most make around 2 million rubles per year (about US$34,860), while some make significantly less, around 58,000 rubles per month (about US$1,011). These workers can obtain special residence permits and bring their families. In 2012-15, the largest groups were from China (20 percent) and Vietnam (13 percent).

In recent years, Russia has become one of the leading importers of labor. Temporary migrants mostly hold low-paying jobs with poor working conditions, which are unattractive to the native population. In 2012-14, unskilled workers, primarily in trade and construction, represented as much as 30 percent of all labor migration. There were perhaps more than 4 million foreign workers in 2014, up from 3 million the year before. Most workers issued patents and work permits in 2011-15 were citizens of Uzbekistan (45 percent), Tajikistan (nearly 20 percent), or Ukraine (9 percent). Citizens of former Soviet countries made up at least 90 percent of the total flow of authorized migrants. The other leading origin countries were China, Turkey, Vietnam, and North Korea.

Migration during Economic Crisis

The Russian economic crisis that began in fall 2014 made life more difficult for immigrants. A nearly two-fold depreciation of the ruble against leading world currencies led to a sharp reduction in migrant remittance sending and reduced labor demand. The number of migrant workers shrank by at least one-third between 2014 and 2015, with countries such as Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova experiencing a more than 50 percent drop in their nationals in Russia.

In 2015, new regulations made it more difficult and costly for migrants to access the Russian labor market. All potential employees are now required to pass Russian language and history tests, undergo a medical exam, and purchase health insurance. In some regions, a migrant worker on a patent now pays a yearly fee equal to two months’ salary to remain.

Migration Today: Trends and Debates

Today, the foreign-born population in Russia is technically the third largest in the world, after that of the United States and Germany. However, a significant number of "international migrants" in Russia fall into this category only in a statistical sense; many moved to Russia before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Their migration at the time was within national borders, thus it was internal migration. As of 2010, 11.2 million residents were born outside Russia, 93.4 percent of them natives of former Soviet republics. Nearly 95 percent of the total foreign-born population (excluding temporary labor migrants) held Russian citizenship.

The number of foreigners with valid temporary and permanent residence permits has grown in recent years, surpassing 1 million by the end of August 2016. In 2015, almost 80 percent of residence permit holders were from six countries: Ukraine (approximately 306,000 people, or 29 percent of the total), Uzbekistan (138,000, 13 percent), Armenia (116,000, 11 percent), Tajikistan (100,000, 10 percent), and Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan (with 85,000, or 8 percent apiece).

Because so many are international migrants only in the technical sense, it is useful to look at the number holding foreign citizenship. In January 2016, almost 10 million citizens of other countries stayed in Russia, with varying durations of stay and statuses. Of these, 38 percent (3.7 million) had been in Russia for more than one year. Many foreigners legally reside in Russia without residence permits, including students (242,500 were enrolled in the 2015-16 academic year, most from other former Soviet states) and persons with long-term extendable visas.

Net Migration

Amid the considerable movement of migrants between former Soviet republics, Russia has gained population, a significant development for this aging society; net authorized immigration from other former republics resulted in an increase of 7.5 million people between 1991 and 2015. The main contributors were Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (due to new migration flows, as well as modified counting methods), and Ukraine. Meanwhile, over the same period Russia experienced a net loss of more than 1 million nationals from countries outside the former Soviet Union (see Table 2).

Table 2. Net Migration in Russia by Period, 1991–2015

Note: Green represents positive net migration, while red represents negative net migration. Estimates of overall net migration vary based on methodology, with another estimate based on the demographic balance method placing the figure at 9 million from 1991 to 2015. Source: For data since 1997, see Rosstat, “International Migration,” updated July 8, 2016, available online (in Russian); data prior to 1997 from unpublished reports obtained by the authors from Rosstat and the former Federal Migration Service of Russia (now the Directorate General on Migration Issues in the Ministry of Interior).

In a number of ways, migration has been beneficial for Russia, countries of origin, and migrants themselves. Immigration allowed Russia to compensate for almost 60 percent of the natural population loss experienced following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Russia benefitted from a significant redistribution of human capital, owing to the higher skill and education levels of arriving Russian-speaking migrants. In this way, the loss of skilled labor due to mass migration beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union was offset. However, migration flows in the past decade (with the possible exception of forced migrants from Ukraine, who arrived in 2014–15) have been very different, with lower education levels on average.

Emigration from Russia

In 2015, 10.6 million people born in Russia lived abroad, about three-quarters in former Soviet republics. Of the 2.4 million living beyond the former Soviet republics, 1.1 million were in Germany, more than 400,000 in the United States, and about 115,000 in Israel. Many emigrants maintain a dwelling along with business and work ties in Russia, and retain Russian citizenship.

Overall, between 1991 and 2015 the top destination countries were Ukraine (29 percent), Germany (14 percent), and Kazakhstan (13 percent). A distinctive feature of Russian emigration to non-former Soviet states in the 1990s was its geographical concentration and pronounced ethnic component. Almost 70 percent of these emigrants moved to Germany or Israel, mainly as permanent immigrants. Many migrants from Russia also left for the United States, and until the mid-1990s more than half obtained refugee status. These shares varied considerably by period, and in 2001-10 the top destination country was Germany, which received almost 30 percent of all Russian emigrants.

By the mid-2000s, the migration outflow to countries outside the former Soviet Union decreased significantly, as many of those who intended to take advantage of repatriation programs (mainly to Israel and Germany) had already done so, and immigration programs for former Soviet citizens began to be curtailed. Over the years, Russian citizens have also placed value on other attractive destinations, including Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, and Spain. In the past two decades, the nature of migration has changed and has acquired a more distinctly economic character.

Citizenship Policy

Laws on the acquisition of Russian citizenship, similar to the policies that regulate entry and work authorization, have undergone significant changes since the Soviet collapse. From 1992 to 2015, about 8.5 million people acquired Russian citizenship. Many residents of post-Soviet states have viewed attaining Russian citizenship as a desirable goal. Until 2002, naturalization was regulated by an extremely liberal citizenship law, allowing individuals to apply for citizenship by submitting an application to the Ministry of Interior if in Russia or to Russian consulates if abroad. Hundreds of thousands of residents in former Soviet republics took advantage of this opportunity, allowing them to avoid bureaucratic difficulties while moving to and settling in Russia.

A new law on citizenship in 2002 and subsequent amendments in 2003 simplified naturalization for most applicants, requiring only a temporary residence permit and a waiting period of no more than 1.5 years. In accordance with international agreements, hundreds of thousands of citizens of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan obtained Russian nationality, some just three months after arriving in Russia. As of late 2011, all foreigners applying for Russian citizenship must have a permanent residence permit, a requirement that extended the application process but in general did not slow the simplified citizenship acquisition process.

Figure 3 . Naturalizations by Category, (%), 2009-15

Source: Unpublished reports obtained by the authors from Rosstat and the former Federal Migration Service of Russia (now the Directorate General on Migration Issues in the Ministry of Interior).

In 2006, Russia launched a program of assistance for voluntary “resettlement of compatriots” (see Box 2). Fifty-one percent of foreigners naturalized through the Ministry of Interior in 2015 were participants in this program, followed by spouses of Russian citizens (14 percent) and applicants with a Russian-citizen parent (13 percent). The number of people who acquired citizenship through marriage increased from 700 in 2009 to 35,000 in 2016, suggesting that fraudulent marriages may have grown in popularity as a way to more easily obtain citizenship.

Box 2 . The State Program of Assistance for Resettlement of Compatriots

The state program of assistance for voluntary resettlement of “compatriots” living abroad, launched in 2006, is the only comprehensive initiative to encourage immigration to Russia. At its core is a pronounced ethnic component (proximity to Russian culture, Russian “roots," or similar ties). The program also emphasizes the importance of potential migrants’ professional and educational attainment.

Interest in the program grew after several legislative changes significantly complicated access to citizenship for most immigrants. Other naturalization channels were either significantly reduced or ceased to exist after 2009.

In summer 2014, the program was opened up to the victims of the conflict in southeast Ukraine who had arrived in Russia as forced migrants and had been granted temporary (more than 300,000 in total from 2014-15). Thus, citizens of Ukraine became the major group of new participants of the State Program in 2014-15.

Currently, more than half of all persons acquiring citizenship are participants in the resettlement program. By the end of 2015, some 530,000 people had participated in the program, most having naturalized.

From 1992 to 2015, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were the top origins for immigrants granted Russian citizenship though the Ministry of Interior, with 1.7 million and 1.1 million respectively. Naturalized immigrants from four Central Asian countries accounted for 1.6 million of the total, and 1.1 million were from the three Transcaucasian states.

Looking Ahead

In June 2012, the President of Russia approved the State Migration Policy Concept. The concept, which sets policy until 2025, aims to make immigration policy more balanced and includes the development of legislation focused on various long-term and temporary (primarily labor) migration flows. Implementation has required about 50 legislative changes, and substantial amendments were made to laws on the legal status of foreign citizens, entry and exit procedures, and citizenship. In addition, numerous international agreements—both bilateral and collective—apply to national legislation in the areas of migration, travel and visa issues, legal status, labor migration, citizenship concerns, readmission, and more.

As of this writing, most of the concept’s goals have not been achieved and major challenges remain. There are still no immigration programs with diversified terms for different categories of migrants. The bulk of migrant workers come to Russia under more generic terms; for example, health-care workers and low-skilled seasonal workers must fulfill the same rules to access the labor market. Effects from labor migration are estimated only on the basis of annual fees paid by workers for the patents. Integration of migrants receives little policy attention, though the simplified citizenship acquisition process makes integration needs difficult to discern.

Today, Russia stands at another crossroads, and will need to make decisions in two key areas: how migration should be regulated, and how many (and what kind of) migrants Russia needs.

Arefiev, A.L. 2012. International Students in Russian Universities . Report at the 3rd World Forum of Foreign Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities. Moscow: Institute of Demography of National Research University Higher School of Economics. (In Russian)

Chudinovskikh, Olga. 2014. Use of Administrative Data Sources to Measure Migration in Russia. Presentation at Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statisticians, Work Session on Migration Statistics, Chisinau, Moldova, September 10-12, 2014.

Chudinovskikh, Olga. 2015. Collecting Data on Labor Migration in Sample Surveys of the Population. Voprosy Statistiki 9: 12-22. (In Russian)

Chudinovskikh, Olga and Mikhail Denisenko. 2014. Population Mobility in the Commonwealth of Independent States: Whither Common Migration Policy . CARIM-East Research Report. CMR Working Papers No 74(132). Warsaw: Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw.

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High School Assignment Sparks Controversy for Asking Students to Answer ‘Is God Real?’

“This is some crazy s--- overall and also on a technical level,” said a Skiatook High School student’s mother

A homework assignment ignited uproar online after a concerned parent shared a photo of the questions a teacher wanted her child to answer, including "Is God real?"

Oklahoma mother Olivia Gray posted her sophomore daughter Nettie Gray’s world history assignment from a Skiatook High School teacher on Facebook on Aug. 15, describing it as “some crazy s---.”

The assignment — titled “How did the world start?” — ended with two questions that raised concerns: “Is God real?” and “Is Satan real?”

“It’s being called a research paper,” Olivia wrote of the assignment, which asked students to provide sources using APA Style to support their answers.

“This is some crazy s--- overall and also on a technical level. Literally the kid had been in school ONE WEEK,” she concluded.

Many reacted to the assignment in the comments section of Olivia's Facebook post.

“This assignment is wrong on more than ten levels,” one person commented, while another wrote, “I’m stunned and horrified they are even being allowed to push or preach their own personal religion/religious bias like that onto students in a public school in the United States.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In a statement to area news outlet 2 News Oklahoma on Aug. 19, the school district addressed the situation.

“Skiatook Public Schools became aware of the World History assignment in question through a social media post,” the statement read. “Once administration reviewed the assignment, it was determined that the presentation of the material was not conducive to our instructional plan.”

“Administration and staff will continue to collaborate on best practices to meet the Oklahoma Academic Standards,” the statement added.

PEOPLE reached out to Skiatook Public Schools’ Superintendent Rick Loggins and Director of Curriculum Tim Buck for comment about the controversial assignment, but did not immediately hear back.

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