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Information Sources
Immigration information is also very useful in drafting important national policies used for decision making and strategic planning. In the UK, the most reliable sources of data for immigration are the Office for National Statistics, Home Office, UK Census, Joseph Rowentree Foundation, Institute for Statistical Studies and migration UK..
Office for National Statistics and International Passenger Survey
The office of National Statistics provides latest and updated information on migration statistics on a quarterly basis. Besides, it operates jointly with the Department for Work and Pensions as well as the Home Office (Office for National Statistics 2010). It presents information on various migration-related data and includes the figures from the International Passenger Survey which normally has information on the total long-term migration figures. This makes the information available in this source be more relevant and current. The Office for National Statistics also provide guidance on interpretation of the available from the source by defining the terms used in the data presentation, thus making the information easy to understand and interpret.
The International Passenger Survey compares long-term emigration from the UK and long-term immigration to the UK over years and analyzes their significance on the economy. The information provided by the Office for National Statistics and the IPS also include services provided to non-UK citizens such as insurance. The information also includes the total number of non-UK nationals who applied for and acquired work visas as well as employment characteristics of foreign workers. This also includes information on the employment and unemployment rates, occupation, earnings, and educational qualifications.
Home Office
The Home Office provides a range of information on immigration-related issues which include how to apply for visa and how to apply for asylum and even the responsibilities of the Home Office. It clearly outlines the application procedures and reasons for applications for visas or for seeking asylum in the UK. More important are the information on issues that normally arise as a result of immigration such as antisocial behavior, drugs and alcohol abuse, crime and terrorism (Home Office 2010). It provides publications on these immigration related issues and these include the current status of the issues and how to counter these issues. The publications include ministerial statements on what the government is doing or planning to do to counter these anti-social behaviors and crimes which come as a result of immigration.
UK Census
The UK Census provides relevant information on births, deaths, marriages as well as the censuses that have been carried out before. It also has other indexes for measuring population statistic. UK Census provides census data that has been recorded in the country since the 1837 (UKBMD 2010). One may then obtain, death, marriage or birth indexes from the office both in their original and secondary state. This implies that it is easy to acquire the original data of every county, district and nation within the UK. The UK Census also includes the immigrants statistical This information from the UK Census can be used to calculate birth rates, life expectancy, mortality rates, fertility rates as well as the total births in UK. The statistics can then be used to inform the public about the population and social trends in the country. The statistics can also be used to devise counteractive measures to control population growth or to curb infant mortality.
Migration Watch UK and Institute for Statistical Studies
Migration Watch UK is an independent and non-political organization concerned with immigration and emigration in UK and presents wide range of both statistical and qualitative data on immigration. It gives an analysis of the net inflow of immigrations against the net outflow of emigrants. It also gives other details including an analysis of immigrants per age groups, ethnic groups among many other population characteristic. This information source also presents information on the international characters of the ethnic communities living in each particular area and their influence on the social and cultural aspects of the economy (Migration Watch UK 2009). The statistical data is acquired from the Office for National Statistics. Since, the Office for National Statistics provides reliable and accurate data, it implies that the data presented by the Migration Watch UK is also accurate and reliable. In particular it focuses on the impacts of immigration on the social, economic and political aspects of the country. It presents newspaper articles that discuss the impacts of immigration as well as statements from political leaders and economists on the impacts of immigration in the UK.
Institute for Statistical Studies
This institute collects and researches on population and this helps understand the economic impacts of immigration, population increase as well as population trends. In particular, it analyzes immigration trends and its economic consequences (Martin, Rebecca 2006). It undertakes researches and publications of its research findings and reports. It then uses the data to compare with those that had already been presented to the public. It provides a wide range of data which include immigrants both legal and legal, their place of settlements, their educational qualifications, their poverty rates, their social security cover and wages. It also analyses their total in terms of age groups and compares the total population of immigrants born in the UK and those born outside the UK. It also analyses the immigrants countries of origin and the characteristics which they come with into the country.
Joseph Rowentree Foundation
Joseph Rowntree Foundation was founded to help the public and institutions understand the relationship between immigration and social cohesion (Crowley, Hickman and Mai 2008). The foundation carries out research and publishes reports that show the various context of social and economic cohesion (Crowley, Hickman and Mai 2008). The foundation provides information about the factors which influence the immigrants in the UK and also gives solutions on how best to counter these problems. In particular, the foundation reveals the long-term impacts of marginalization of the immigrants in the UK particularly in jobs and family transformations, social cohesion in education as well as political and ethnic minority discrimination.
Importance of the Information Sources
These organizations and information sources are responsible for collecting and developing relevant quantitative and qualitative information and disseminating the information in a more relevant, customer-oriented and timely manner. They also provide quality information on immigration which can be used to analyze the impacts of immigration on the socio-economic, cultural and political status of the country.
These sources cover wide range of social, cultural and political issue that results from immigration and are of prime importance to social scientists. In particular, they cover the social and cultural concerns that arise as a result of immigration such as congestion of social amenities, antisocial behaviours as well impacts of immigration on demographic situations in the UK. Social scientists normally try to understand the societal issues that affect cohesion, socialization and in general healthy living in the society. These information sources provide the guidelines for understanding of these social and cultural influences on the UK societies. The information sources provide reference to the causes of the social problems experienced in the UK societies as well as the extent of the impacts in our societies. The sources provide more information on where specific immigrants have settled and their original countries. This enables the social scientists to better understand their behavior since they are able to study their international characteristic and the factors that have shaped their behaviours to become what and who they are in the UK context.
The sources also have some publications discussing the solutions to the immigrants-related problems. The solutions presented in the publications are normally reports of scientific researches or experts ideas. This information helps social scientists better understand the real problems behind the social problems that we see. They are therefore better equipped to offer solutions to problems that arise from immigration and immigrants in the UK. The information sources also provide information that can enable social scientists to trace the origins of the of particular immigrant groups and therefore develop social theories to explain the behavior of the particular immigrant groups. Thus these information sources provide a basis for social scientific research.
Impacts of Immigration
Although immigration has advantages associated with it, in the UK, it causes more negative impacts than positive impacts. Immigration affects almost all aspects of the economy of the UK and the issues range from economic, social, demographic and mobility. The major problem caused by immigration is the demographic situation of the country that has been largely contributed by immigrants and in particular, immigrant mothers. According to Migration Watch UK (2009) there are high levels of net inflow of immigrants as compared to net outflow of emigrants. Besides, foreign born mothers and mothers born by non-UK parents contribute more to the number of births in the UK than the UK-born mothers. This implies that immigrants still do not abandon their cultures when they enter the UK and this seriously impacts on the birth rates in the country. The number of immigrants is still expected to increase with the steady rise on the annual number of immigrants in the UK.
The demographic impacts in turn have impacted on the economic situations in the country. The immigrants also fight for the limited job opportunities in the country and highly contribute to the rising poverty levels in the country. Most of them have low educational qualifications and skills needed in the UKs job market considering that the UK is an industrialized nation and therefore they are not able to secure jobs. This implies that that the immigrants contribute less towards the nations economic growth considering the international repatriation laws. Besides, the amnesty that is normally granted to long-term illegal immigrants and the high population of legal immigrants leads to an increase in government spending particularly in provision of welfare services, social housing and social amenities.
Socially, immigration in the country leads to congestion experienced in social amenities and social housing. According to Migration Watch UK (2009) uncontrolled immigration causes pressure on social housing, education facilities and health care facilities. Migration Watch UK (2009) states that according to the results of a research that was carried out in 2009, the number of non-UK born tenants have increased from about 7.2% to 11.1%. The Home Office (2010) also concludes that immigration is also the source of some social crimes experienced in the UK and they include terrorism and other crimes, alcohol and drug abuse and other antisocial behaviours. Thus immigration leads to complications in security situations experienced in the country. Other social problems experienced in the UK are the social cohesion of the immigrants into the social systems in the UK. Assimilation of immigrants has proved to be a great challenge in the UK since there exists persistent distrust of immigrants particularly among the UK natives. Some immigrants also find it difficult to adopt what they consider foreign cultures.
The Data Presented by the Information Sources
The Office for National Statistics (2010) defines an international migrant as one who changes his or her country of usual residence for a period of not less than a year so that his or her country of destination becomes the country of residence. The Office for The figures presented by these sources particularly the Migration Watch UK, which presents a more customer oriented statistics, shows a worrying trend of immigration in the UK and the impacts of immigration on the UKs economy. The figures show the immigration trends which include a comparison of the UK-born children of foreign mothers and those whose mothers were born of foreign mothers. The figures also illustrate the differences in immigrant levels per age group as well as per country of origin. The figures also give a comparison in percentage of the settlement areas of the immigrants. Of great importance are the projections that these information sources present on the future immigration situation in the UK. The international Passenger Survey presents other crucial statistical information on the social services provided to the immigrants which include social security services, social housing services among many others.
Immigrants Characteristics
Immigrants normally give various reasons for wanting to get into the UK. Some of them enter the country to pursue educational ambitions, some get into the country to look for job opportunities and normally acquire work visas or even to seek asylum and many other reasons. Generally, most of the immigrants in the UK are from the European Union and the Common Wealth countries which include the African continent and the Asian continent (Migration Watch UK 2009). Most immigrants from the Asian countries and the troubled parts of Africa entered the country to seek asylum and it includes those who enter the country legally and illegally. Thus most of the immigrants especially those who come from outside the European Union are less educated and less prepared to meet the required employment skills in the UKs job market. Besides, most of the immigrants in the UK are the younger age groups especially below 12 years and the age group between age 15 and 24 (Migration Watch UK 2009).
References
Crowley, H, Hickman, M., & Mai, N., 2008, Immigration and social: Cohesion in the UK. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Web.
Home Office., 2010, Passport and Immigration. Web.
Martin, W, &Rebecca, R., 2006, Article: Commentary: immigration and its effects.(Statistical data). National Institute Economic Review. The Gale Group, Inc 2010. Web.
Migration Watch UK. (2009). The Social Impacts of Immigration. Migration Watch UK. Web.
Office for National Statistics, 2010, News Release: Latest Migration Statistics. Web.
UKBMD, 2010, Births, Marriages, Deaths and Censuses on the Internet. British Geneology Network. Web.
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