Inexpensive commodities and services verses increased social spending have become the paradigm faced by many of the world's developed nations.

Destined to be a “hot button topic” of the 2008 USA Presidential campaign, the issue has found allies in the most unlikely corners. President George Bush and Senator Edward Kennedy on one side with conservative Newt Gingrich and the Black Civil Rights Leaders on the other, surely make strange bedfellows. Not only has the USA seen this topic enter politics but also diverse nations like France, Italy, England, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Japan and Canada have had to deal with the subject in recent elections. This article will address the issues as presented by opposing sides.

Immigration

has been a self inflicted concern by the developed nations over the years. Whether it was via colonization, as in the cases of England, Spain, France, Portugal and Japan, or via enlargement as in the cases of Germany, Canada and the USA; immigration was a means to an end for these countries.

• Colonization: these immigrants come from the various colonies that were once part of that country’s empire. Indians in England, Tunisians in France, Brazilians in Portugal and Koreans in Japan have lived for decades in their respective host’s homeland.

• Expansion: there is little difference between this group of immigrants and those that stir emotions today. Whether it is the French in Canada, Irish and Italians in America or Checks, Austrians and Alsace’s in Germany; their existence was thought to make the countries great as they are today.

But now there is a new issue over immigration. No longer viewed as an escape from religious or ideological persecution, it is seen strictly as an economic escape.*

Labor

With an ever shrinking pie, workers of the developed countries feel threatened. “Globalization has reduced the bargaining power of unskilled workers and pushed up inequality in many Western countries… the prospect…[has] increased the vulnerability of jobs and wages in developed countries,” as stated in the Mail & Guardian Online article on June 20, 2007.

Pakistanis in England, Chinese in Portugal (Macau), Muslims in France, Poles in Germany, Indians in Canada, Africans in Spain and Latinos in America have been greeted with an ever increasing hostility. Portrayed as the usurpers of a way of life, citizens have retaliated with desires to close national doors.

Security

Used as a red herring, security has become the buzz word for the anti-immigrationists. Certainly security issues have taken center stage recently; however, immigration has little to do with the topic. “Few stereotypes of immigrants are as enduring, or have been proven so categorically false…as the notion that immigrants are disproportionately likely to engage in criminal activity…(If anything) immigrants are disproportionately unlikely to be criminal.” *

Rights

Many believe the cost of citizenship has increased due to immigration rights. Great strains are put on social networks in affected nations. Immigrants are seen to take “jobs that not even blacks want to do” as stated by former Mexican President Vincente Fox in an interview with Texas businessmen. As a result it is perceived that immigrant contributions into the system are disproportionate to their drain on the system.

Products and Services

Nowhere is the contribution of immigrant labor more visible than in this area. Low cost domestic labor has greatly allowed the developed nations to compete with the thriving economies of the developing nations. It has not only maintained low internal prices but also allows the developed nations to compete on the world stage. Here the immigrant contributions into the system are far greater than their drain on the system.

No matter what the perspective the arguments will abound and politicians will scramble. The one constant is, treatment of this issue has and will be again an indicator of a nation’s destiny.

* “Immigration and the Justice System" Research Perspectives on Migration, July/August 1997, Vol. 1, No. 5, Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Urban Institute, p. 2-3.

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