On Global Immigration Policy: Present and Future

Abstract

In more ways than one, immigration has proven central to both developed and underdeveloped countries of the world in terms of globalization. According to the World Migration Report, 280 million people around the world are migrants, equaling 3.6% of the world population in 2020, with only more growth expected (International Organization of Migration). Immigrants from less developed nations traveling to developed nations remain a trend, but not all immigrants travel for new opportunities. While this facet of immigration is mostly public immigration, the nuances of immigrants, emigrants, and their target destinations are a rather complex issue. This paper seeks to examine this interdisciplinary study of migration, exploring the economies, politics, and societies that have built the contemporary migration experience, and reflecting its findings through case studies of immigration policy across different situations sourced from various peer-reviewed studies. In the following sections, this paper will begin to define overall theories and definitions that can be applied to different forms of migration; to examine immigration in context, this paper’s later sections establish real world examples to which these concepts can be applied, from both within and outside of the Western world. This paper concludes that immigration is too big a subject to tackle from one perspective. Though each theory may hold some merit, a thorough analysis of immigration policy requires complex explanations. To this end, this paper seeks to quantify different models of immigration between countries, as well as identify population outcomes when immigrants return to their country.