Immigration

Immigration as defined on the Online Dictionary by Farlex is the movement

of non-native people into a country in order to settle there. There are also
legal and illegal processes of Immigration. Illegal Immigration is when you
settle into a country without any government permission, and legal
immigration is when you get government permission before you start living in
the country. These three groups of people are known as refugees and
legal/illegal immigrants. 3 of the things needed to immigrate legally are your
passport, visa and citizenship. First of all you need your passport to travel
overseas, without it you cant travel overseas. Visa is also another important
item you need. There is a wide range of different Visas including student,
work, living, investment and visitor. For example, work Visa is used for working
in New Zealand for a short period of time, but you cannot receive permanent
residence without applying for it. One of the last important items is Citizenship.
Citizenship is used to change your passport from your country of origin, to the
destination country you wish to move to. The reasons people immigrate are
also known as push and pull factors. In the next paragraphs I have listed
some of these most common factors in detail. . .

Push Factors:

Unemployment- Unemployment create families to leave because they can
no longer afford to live in their house or pay for the food, or they just arent
being paid enough. Because nowadays most of the work is being done by
machines, for example at New World supermarket they are starting to have
auto check-out devices that dont need humans to help operate them. But
its just 2012, and Technology has already come to this stage! Imagine 100
years later, Would they even need humans for all these jobs?. . .

Civil Unrest, War (Lack of safety)- Many families and individuals also leave
their country of origin due to civil unrest and war, which both cause lack of
safety for adults as well as children. An example of civil unrest would be the
London Riot that happened not long ago last year in August. This unnecessary
riot had caused dozens to be hurt, injured and wounded. Somalia and
Afghanistan are great examples of ongoing war. Take Somalia first for
example, their war had began since 1991, and still going on till today at this
very moment! These 2 countries and many more including Vietnam ,Syria and
Bosnia ( just to name a few) have many refugees fleeing from them
everyday. Like in Syria, even if it means walking 7days until they get to
Jordans border and not-knowing what awaits there. These refugees choose
to flee because they have no choice at all. War is happening everyday and
they are suffering from serious injuries killing family members, having a lack of
food causing serious diseases, and hardly any safe shelter at all! Moving to a
country such as New Zealand would provide much more chances for them
as individuals, better lifestyle and education.

Poverty- Poverty means one has lack of many things. The long list includes,
money, freshwater, clothing, education, care for their health and shelter; or in
simpler words you can say they don't have the everyday basic human needs.
It is estimated that around the world, there are about 1.7 billion people living
through poverty today. Some of the common causes of poverty are natural
disasters, warfare, flooding and droughts. Estimated by the United Nations,
there is said to be a death toll of 25,000 everyday due to hunger and
starvation. Some of the top poorest countries suffering from poverty today
include Niger, Ethiopia, Republic of Somalia, The Solomon Islands, The
Republic of Zimbabwe and countries in Africa. Although India is known as a
developing country, most people still go through everyday without the source
of light, food, freshwater and enough clothes and shelter to keep them warm.

Crop Failure- Crop failure could cause serious issues for everyone. It could
cause a big impact on the people and economy. If the crops fail to grow, the
farmers and workers get no income, therefore there are less goods being sold
at the markets and a less range of choice. Imagine having to live through a
month with every single farmer going through crop failure! How could we
survive without the crops! Last year in November 13, 2011 it was posted that in
Afghanistan they've gone through a serious crop failure leaving an
approximate 7 million Afghans at risk! Also on the website
www.theextinctionproticol.wordpress.com states that Meanwhile the
parliamentarian commission for natural resources and environmental
habitance also said, more than 90% of the Afghan agriculture was affected
by drought this year.

Drought- A serious drought can lead to a hundreds and thousands of people
dying. Water is a very important thing to the human body and we cannot
survive for long without it. The main cause of a drought is lack of rain-fall over
a long period of time. The human body is made up of an approximate 60% of
water, it also makes up more than half of our body weight, it is needed for the
digestive system and it is really important for pumping all the oxygen through
your body. Droughts have happened in so many places around the world,
and some including Australia. In 1982-1983 Australia had a huge lack of rain-
fall for more and a whole year. This caused 60% of the cattle and sheep there
to die. Another country would be Africa. Africa had decreased rainfall from
1972-1974 causing the financial business in the country to go down. Britain
was one of the countries the suffered from severe drought too in 1976.
Although droughts are really rare in England, it did not rain for about 1 year
and 3 months. Water was then in great need in the larger cities of Britain.


Pull Factors:

Potential for employment- Staying in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan,
Bosnia, Somalia will not give you a high chance of getting a good, well
payed and stable job. Coming to first world countries such as New Zealand
and Australia will give you much better opportunities for employment. At the
moment the New Zealand government accepts up to 750 refugees each
year. Quota refugees when they come on arrival, they have to complete a
six-week orientation programme. And they put an effort towards placing the
refugees near families and friends. Refugees also have the same rights as all
of us who live in New Zealand. They may also apply for NZ Citizenship after 5
years if they wish to. This would then lead them to a stable job for a long
period of time, because they wouldnt have to worry about having to leave
the country.


A safer atmosphere- Many refugees, tourists and families move to different
countries due to the fact that they didnt live in a safe one before. For
example, New Zealand is a safe, peaceful, quiet country, with clean air,
streets and surroundings. New Zealand is also known as a clean green
country. This causes a pull factor for many people living in unsafe
atmospheres out there in other countries. Also on the www.top10hell.com
website, New Zealand is placed 5
th
for the top ten best countries to live in. The
different point of views that calculated the score were out of cost of living,
economy, environment, freedom, health, risk and safety and climate.

Greater Wealth- In one of the articles on www.cbsnews.com Australia is listed
as number 6 for one of the 10 best countries to live and work-abroad. This is
because people see Australia as a country that pays their workers a fair
amount of money for their job. It also says that Canberra (Australias capital
city) is the most popular city for outsiders to come in and work in. But in rank
number 1 is China. China has a population of over 1.3 billion people. China is
also home to 19% of the worlds population and 14% of the global companies
around the world have marked China as their top ten international
relocation destinations.

Good Food supplies- In America, France, Germany, China, Sweden and most
other first world countries have a great range of food supplies. We need a big
range so that we dont get sick of eating the same things over and over
again. I am lucky enough to live in New Zealand because we are a first world
country and we have been provided with so much fresh vegetables and a
such a wide range of different foods to choose from. But in third world
countries such as Somalia, Bosnia and Afghanistan etc. its even hard for
them to find food! Giving a family fresh fruit for a day I imagine, would make
them so much happier and would brighten up their days. Unlike us, who live in
first world countries, 5+ a day is a part of our everyday health needs so we
have to eat 5 different fruits and vegetables even though sometimes we
refuse to. But have we ever stopped to think to our-selves how lucky we
actually are to get home and have dinner served on our table?. . .

Less risk of natural disasters causing death- On Tuesday the 12
th
of January
2010 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck Haiti. Around 316,000
died. On 4
th
September 2010 a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck
Christchurch. The recorded death toll was 0. Although the magnitude of the
earthquake in Christchurch was larger than the one in Haiti, no-one died in
Canterbury. This was because in New Zealand, houses and buildings are more
strongly and stably built. But in a third world country like Haiti the buildings had
not been designed to resist that 7.0 magnitude earthquake, so sadly buildings
came crumbling down. So living in a country with a more stronger-economy
will help save-lives and definitely decrease the death-tolls when a natural
disaster strikes.

In Conclusion I believe that all of us living in New Zealand and first world
countries are very lucky. We are known as a 100% pure, green country in New
Zealand. We live through everyday without worrying about not having basic
human needs. We should remember how lucky we are everyday and how
many people in third world countries dream of living in a country like this
everyday.

Essay written by: Winnie Zhang
8M2

Severe droughts can turn out looking like this:



Syria and its neighbouring countries including Jordan and Turkey:



Statistics show clearly below the great increase of immigration in the United
States from 1820, right through to 2010:




Bibliography:

Information on Poverty and Poverty statistics found on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty

Information about Afghanistan crop failure found on:
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/massive-crop-failure-
in-afghanistan-leaves-millions-at-risk-from-severe-drought/

Best 10 countries to live in the world found on:
http://top10hell.com/10-best-countries-to-live-in-2010/

Best 10 countries to live and work abroad found on:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37145117/10-best-countries-to-
live-and-work-abroad/?pageNum=7&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Information on droughts found on:
http://library.thinkquest.org/10136/drought/droutq.htm

The online dictionary I used when I didnt know the meaning of some terms
and words, found on:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/