Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Immigration - Essay Example African countries have been the world’s leading source of immigrants for centuries. As Okome (2005) states, the ceaseless civil wars, communal riots, famine and military sabotage in African countries including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra have been providing the world with thousands of refugees every year. Among these, a major portion is accommodated by the US. Nigerian civil war, Somalia conflict, Liberian civil war and the Eritrean-Ethiopian war also caused intense immigration to western countries and to the US (Okome, 2005). Since religious and ethnic conflicts have increased more than ever before, people in many parts of the world are under the threat of anytime forced migration. In other words, ‘ethnically and politically divided states, unstable and corrupt governments and political systems, and dictatorships, lack of civility, increased lawlessness’ (Cox & Pawar (2005 p.277), are the major causes of forced migration. In addition, certain environmental factors also cause massive migration in various parts of the world. For instance, natural phenomena such as sea level rise, hurricanes and typhoons, drought, wildfire, heat waves, volcanoes, and earthquakes make millions of people ecological refugees every year. Furthermore, governments’ infrastructure projects such as building of dams, roads or tourist resorts often demand forced migration. World Bank estimates that 90 million people were displaced in the 1990s as a result of infrastructure projects (Digby B, 2001p.167). Therefore a few causes of immigration such as globalization, financial policies, and infrastructure modification are closely associated with global change. The recent developments like globalization and the subsequent economic growth and downfalls also contributed to the extraordinary level of migration. Obviously, Globalization exposed a new world of opportunities to the people of African Continent and