Immigrations theme
Several immigrations theme crisscrosses all regions, including political, demographic, environmental, and socio-economic themes. The undocumented immigrants’ issue is a hot debate with many people correlating this with an increase in crime (UNU MERIT 11:55). In almost every part of the world, people leave their country’s due to political persecution, primarily in countries from Africa and Asia. Secondly, the immigration theme of social-economic immigration as more people are moving to different countries to pursue a better living standard. Thirdly, economic migration is a common theme as many people moved from foreign countries to find employment and follow a particular career path. Fulani claims that “Asia’s massive entry onto the world migration stage in the mid-twentieth century can be seen as the result of the opening up of the continent’s political relationships with the industrialized countries the postcolonial period”(149). The statement shows that the economic theme was the most crucial factor that leads to immigration, especially in Asia, as countries were becoming more industrious, thus demanding skilled and unskilled labor.
Convergence
Countries such as Japan that experience economic growth in the 1960s imported skilled and unskilled labor from countries such as Thailand, which had a large pool of skilled labor. The growth in manufacturing industries required labor, which was not enough due to the aging society, and this meant that importation of labor would be encouraged but with specific regulations. However, in the 1990s, there is a convergence because Thailand has experienced economic growth. Most citizens have shunned from working in countries such as Japan and Malaysia and have sought to similarly recruit immigrants “workers from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh” (159). Secondly, their African migration to Europe has been a prominent issue influenced by economic growth in these regions. There have been assumptions that many immigrants from Africa are poor people running away from poverty. However, this has proven untrue because most Africans turn way to other cou8ntries where “Migration from Africa to China has been growing fast” (188). This is a convergence of the West being the initial destination of immigrants from Africa. China and other Asia-pacific countries experiencing robust economic growth have become more attractive to Africans.
Divergence
There are countries such as United States, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, which have historically been a priority for most immigrants, primarily from Asia-pacific countries, because they employed most Asians. However, there is divergence to this immigration trend because countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel have increasingly become labor-importing countries, with about 10.2 million women workers in these countries (153). Therefore, there has been a divergence in terms of the countries that have become the primary destination of immigrants seeking economic prosperity. Another divergence was that men were most likely to migrate to foreign nations in the early days of immigration than women. Still, in the Middle East, the number of women seeking employment is enormous.