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Introduction of immigration It could be argued that the immigration process dates back to the very start of the human race. Since the begining of time humans have migrated from place to place in search of a better life and better security for themselves and their families. In the begining the challenges were purely logistical, how to safely travel to your new home, and how to live peacefully with the people and creatures already there. In the modern world there are also legal challenges. Immigration has became a subject of numerous disputes, but for many people it remains an opportunity to reach their goals and provide better security for themselves and their families. Immigration is a movement from one country to another, in order to settle there. Annual migration statistics are astonishing! According to data, provided by International Organization for Migration, 200 million people throughout the world migrated during year 2006 alone! In 2012, Gallop (a US company), conducted a survey which completely changed the way experts look at immigration. Almost 640 million people responded that they would like to move to another country if they had the chance. The biggest destination for immigrants so far is Europe, which hosted 70 million people during year 2005 alone! The second place being held by the USA and Canada, which have hosted around 45 million immigrants. Usually immigration is about getting a better and safer life, so in some parts of the world it is to escape war, poverty, famine, and genocide. But even in the more civilized parts of the world you often see immigration in order to seek a more comfortable social, political or economic situation. This explains why the most prosperous and successful countries are also the most popular amongst immigrants. Data shows that this trend is increasing, and each year the number of migrants increases. Such flow of immigrants has become the subject of many political discussions recently. As a result a number of countries have begun to make their immigration policies and laws much more strict. How to ensure the propper treatment of migrants in their host countries is also a topic of debate, since the rights of immigrants have often been abused and violated in some places. However, freedom of movement is often recognized as a civil right, declared by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966). Despite this fact, no sovereign state provides full freedom of movement across its borders (except Uruguay). Even countries of the Schengen area, which aim to promote free movement, and which do not have any internal border controls within the area, still perform normal border control procedures when first entering the area. |