Migration in Europe - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

Migration from other countries, especially third world countries, to European countries has steadily increased in recent years. After beating many obstacles to get to Europe, many hope for a better life for themselves in the new community. However, the migration has been followed by massive resentment and discrimination towards the migrants. Migrants are viewed as enemies and intruders who, for example, take the jobs meant for the people of the host country. This paper seeks to examine to what extent mass migration has influenced xenophobia and how this has continued to undermine the human rights of the migrants. The research also seeks to evaluate how international, regional, and national laws and policies have been formulated and implemented to deal with the xenophobia challenge.

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Movement

Migration is the movement of people from one place in the world to another. This movement is influenced by push and pull factors. The push factors include reasons for leaving your place of origin due to problems such as drought, war, food shortage, or flood. In contrast, pull factors include seeking more job opportunities, economic and political stability, better food supply, and a good climate. However, the rise in migration has led to a correspondent rise in hatred, animosity, and intolerance towards the migrants regardless of the social status. The hosts treat the migrants with great wariness as they see migrants as intruders who seek to occupy opportunities meant for them.

Migration has dramatically increased throughout Europe in recent decades due to linkages to the global economy, history of mass relocation of people and forced migration, increased urban and rural unemployment and poverty, and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Further, the European countries have a vast presence of asylum seekers and refugees from within the region as well as outside the European Union. According to the survey data from the Eurobarometer, immigration has become one of the most crucial concerns facing the European Union. The concerns are on the rise because migration is also associated with unemployment, Terrorism, crime, inflation, rising prices and cost of living, energy supply taxation, and economic situation. There is a clear general perceptive that Europe is facing a migration crisis (European Commission, 2016).

The Arab spring in Iraq, Africa, and Syrian conflicts led to mass migration to European Union Countries in the early 2010s. European Union countries were the most desired direction for migration due to their freedom of movement within the EU. Further, most of the European countries are viewed as politically and economically developed. The massive move put the security of the European states under threat (Szkola, 2016).

Migration

Today, one in every 14 people living in Europe is a refugee, a migrant worker, an immigrant living in Europe, or an asylum seeker. In 2018, more than 446 million people were living in the European Union (European Commission, 2019). 34.2 million people were born outside the European Union while 20.9 million are non-EU citizens making 7.7% and 4.7% of all European Inhabitants, respectively. Various reasons usually influence migrating decision. The most common reasons are family and economic concerns, access to education, and living conditions. Other causes may include health care access, environmental issues, and security. Below is a chart of reasons for issuing a residence permit at the end of 2019. With a total number of 7 731 673 permits, most residence permits were issued for family reasons.

Migration and Employment

According to RAND Europe, most migrants move to Europe for economic reasons, that is, to find jobs on the European labor market. However, this is viewed as a threat to the low skilled European workers, creating tension between the migrant workers and European workers.

On immigrants' employment, an average of 8.8 million people (about 4.6%) employed in the EU labor market were non-EU citizens. The employed non-EU citizens were represented more in some economic sectors than others because they are mostly essential workers.

Migration and Crime

The modern migration patterns are considerably becoming an issue with significant implications for international and national security. Factors such as globalization of information, open borders, free movement of goods, services, capital, and people foster illegal migration, creating organized crime opportunities. Migrants are mostly involved in transnational crime organizations. This is due to massive migration and limited job opportunities for migrants in the hosting state. The limitations push foreigners to engage in activities of prostitution, drug dealing, and radical tendencies. This leads to host citizens viewing migrants as enemies and threats to their national security, therefore treating them with hostility.

Xenophobia

Research has shown that citizens view migration as a problem to their country rather than an opportunity, and therefore victimize the non-citizens. In Europe, the magnitude of these citizens' attitude varies from one country to another. The most vigorous migration opposition is experienced in Finland, Ireland, and Austria compared to Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Mostly, the citizens of the host country are usually more intolerant. As the numbers of Asian and African migrants to Europe have significantly increased in the last few years, the level of tolerance towards migrants has dropped.

It has been reported that the xenophobic attitude in European countries is so prevalent and widespread that it is almost impossible to identify the typical kind of xenophobia profile. This means that the rich and the poor, the unemployed and the employed, the radical and the conservatives, the white and the black, the young and old, male and female, all express an almost similar attitude towards the migrants. This makes it difficult to explain because it goes beyond a specific group of persons. The case is usually those who are regarded as threatened by migration, such as low skilled workers.

Methods of Research

This research will use a qualitative research methodology to examine the influence of mass migration on xenophobia. Further, both migrants and host citizens will be directly interviewed to give their views and opinions on migration and xenophobia. The research will also adopt a data triangulation approach, where we will use multiple data sources. The study will also include independent sources of evidence such as document exploitation, interviews, and observations. We intend on interviewing 25 African and Arabs migrants and 15 host citizens. A convenient sampling method will select the respondents to provide inside information on how they feel and what should be done on growing migration and the rise in xenophobic attacks.

The general perspective is that every interview will trigger another interview, therefore unfolding the themes. The depth interviewing used for the study will help the researcher develop, clarify, verify, and refine the core issues in question. The interview will begin with flexible and unstructured questions to allow the interviewees to communicate freely. The talk will progressively become structured as the researcher moves towards the specific research problem issues and seek further clarification on certain topics. The researcher will also conduct additional informal conversations where notes are taken and memos developed afterward.

In qualitative research, the literature review is an ongoing process and serves as a data source (Chinomona and Maziriri, 2015). The collection of data and analysis will be concurrent. The study and analysis of the collected data will provide evidence from different perspectives.

Conclusion

It is the responsibility of the European Union to formulate a comprehensive immigration policy to deal with irregular and regular migration (European Parliament, 2019). The international and regional policies should properly lay down conditions governing entry and requirements for admission on the typical migration. However, the host state should retain the right to allow or decline admission of persons from third world countries seeking employment opportunities on cheap terms. On irregular migration, the EU should place measures to prevent illegal migrations in a manner consistent with fundamental human rights. This will reduce migration-related crimes such as Terrorism, organized groups, human, arms, and drug trafficking.