Essay about immigration

        At a time when xenophobia is gaining ground in developed countries, when the media are constantly making the link between unemployment and immigration, and above all when political alarmist speeches such as Trump's are increasingly supported, it is easy to imagine migrants as a burden on countries' economic growth.
But if we look at the question, we quickly realise that behind these denunciations hide more political convictions than real economic problems.

        Indeed, immigration is not a recent problem although its over-mediatisation is. Europeans were among the first to experience it in the 19th and 20th centuries, considerably accelerating the demographic growth of countries such as the United States, which today is the world's leading economic power.

        With an ageing population due to the Baby Boom and a low fertility rate, it is more necessary than ever to welcome labour within countries, especially developed countries. The economists say that economic growth depends on expanding the workforce and not shrinking it.  

In fact, the economic growth is mesured by the Gross Domestic Product and is an increase in the quantity of goods and services produced by workers. So the more workers, the more goods they can produce, the more GDP, the more economic growth.

And in US, Germany or Asia population growing at its slowest pace since the Great Depression : the only way the workforce can expand is through immigration.

        So, when Trump cut immigration by half from the current level of more than 1 million green cards granten per year, at the same time, it reduces the amount of wealth production in his country by more than 1 million.

We have the example of Japan, an immigration unfriendly country. If Donald Trump was correct, Japan should be an economic juggernaut. But it is not. The empire of the rising sun is facing an economic and demographic crisis.

        So no, immigrants do not harm the economic health of the countries that receive them. The links between immigration, growth and economic dynamism is real.

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