Daniel Jangwon Yang: Immigration

These days, most people know the living conditions in the other parts of the world thanks to the telecommunication technology such as the Internet and satellite TV. Consequently, they can easily compare the qualities of life and choose the place where they would like to live in the future. There are many factors which stimulate people to move to far away from their home countries. They are environmental circumstances, education and health services, and political and social securities. Contemporarily, many developed countries have opened their doors to attract young generations to balance the age structure of their aging population. Those countries are all desperate. They can’t avoid the catastrophe without filling the producing layer to prop up the whole country. For these reasons, sociologists project that the immigration is the biggest topic during the decade to come. At this time, we need to consider the effects carefully. There are both positive and negative effects that immigration has had on my life.

There are positive effects of immigration on my life. Firstly, new immigrants can find different opportunities from those of their home countries because each country has its own characteristic industries. Accordingly, there are varieties of occupations for the new comers. Especially, it’s better for the aged. For instance, Canada, which welcomes immigrants, provides job opportunities or volunteer positions to the old who have already retired in their home countries. Secondly, new immigrants can enjoy the supports from the governments or societies. They can receive the language education and useful skills. These are very helpful in adapting to a new country and to extend capabilities. Besides, they can take advantage of medical and social benefits such as unemployment insurance and child benefits.

There are negative effects of immigration on my life, too. Firstly, there are many barriers to the immigrants. The first and the most crucial one among them is language. It may decide the success of settlement in a new country. Even though all the immigrants agree on the importance of language, they can’t sort out the issue. That is why adults have serious difficulties to master the new language with totally different structures. On top of this huge barrier, unfamiliar social systems and uprooted networks are the other obstacles to them. They can’t get used to the regulations and practices of the new country. They don’t have close friends whom they ask questions from and share interests with. Secondly, the emotional loneliness is a serious problem new comers suffer from. They are suddenly secluded from families, long-time-friends, relatives and neighbors. Human beings are social animals and should live together. They feel solitude in a crowd of strangers. Moreover, they have lost the ways to release the mental stress due to the different cultures. It may take a long time to learn a new approach to restore the stability of feelings.

The effects of immigration vary, depending on the personalities and traits of the people. Successful immigration sometimes relies on how well they prepare in advance and endure the struggling early stage. The preparation includes efforts to minimize the expected negative effects. Breaking through the early struggling stage needs patience and self-confidence. Anybody who completes the preparation and gets over the settling period will enjoy the positive effects of immigration. There are both positive and negative effects of immigration. The outcome will be decided by individual immigrants.