IMMIGRATION POLICY & CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Immigration Policy & its Contribution to the Cultural Diversity

Immigration Policy & its Contribution to the Cultural Diversity

Immigration is one of the most pressing political challenges for the international community today, and in particular for the developed countries of the West. The legacy of colonialism, political and religious conflict and the impacts of economic globalisation, including the disruption of traditional economies and uneven patterns of development, have all been major causes of global migration. It is imperative that governments realise they cannot ignore migration and instead need clear legislation and guidelines in place to deal with the issue fairly and adequately.

As a rapidly developing economy, UK needs migrant workers to provide essential skills and services. This country is experiencing an excess demand for particular kinds of skills, and has failed to retain staff in the public sector because of the lack of competitive pay and conditions. There is a need to balance the scales to ensure that the labour market?s requirements are met by migrant workers, without threatening job market opportunities for British citizens. In UK up to the early 1990s there has been very little in the way of legislation covering immigration. However, in the late 1990?s labour shortages led to an increase of work permits and visas issued to immigrants seeking work in this country.

UK is still coming to terms with its transition from an emigrant to an immigrant society. It has moved from a position of having virtually no immigration policy in 2000 to a tightening of the regulations in 2003 because of fears of a decline in the economy. Currently British immigration policy is piecemeal, market-driven and is aimed at attracting temporary workers to fill shortages in the labour force. Our immigration system is characterised by a set of ad-hoc procedures, poor co-ordination between several Government Departments and outdated methods for dealing with immigrants. The lack of an adequate immigration policy in this country has resulted in continuing labour shortages in certain sectors, delays in renewing work permits and a general lack of protection for immigrants in relation to employment legislation. It is essential that more modern and streamlined legislation and administrative procedures are introduced to respond to these problems.

A report published in December 2004 by the Central Statistics Office, entitled? Population and Labour Force Projection 2006-36? forecasts radical changes in UK?s demographic profile over the period. It predicts that those over 65 years will grow from the present 430,000 to 1.1 million in 2036, and will comprise one fifth of the population rather than the present one tenth. It estimates that there will be three times more people aged over 80 and that the young population under 16 will grow from 750,000 to over one million. These are startling figures and underline how important a progressive immigration policy will be in this country to ensure that the economy will be able to fund the necessary pension schemes, care, health and educational facilities into the ...