Urbanization, Fertility and Employment in the Intersection of Families and Immigration

People moving with their families from rural to urban areas for employment, both in and between nations, is a studied phenomenon, and was quite evident in immigration into England in a tour of the east end of London yesterday.  Bordered by a growing financial district, London's east end has been a temporary home to poor immigrants from the French Hugenots fleeing protestant religious persection in colonial era to displaced Jews throughout history, to Bangladeshis today into what the United Kingdom has set up as "Banglatown." 

Dr. Mary Manjikian offered a lecture this morning on Chinese immigration from rural farms to urban areas, which scholars suggest has led to destablization in social status (somewhat similar to that of the historical Soviet Union.)  Maslow's pyramid of autonomy and human flourishing illustrates the immigration paradigm of migration for basics of food and shelter on the most basic levels to that of human flourishing at its peak. 

This phenomenon raises issues of human rights, even life-chances for those enduring desperate survival circumstances.  Nationals may choose to emmigrate due to drought or war or any other extreme circumstance. The London Evening Standard on July 6, 2011 at p. 24 reported that a boat of about 200 Somali migrants fleeing the East Africa drought capsized in the Red Sea, leaving at lest 197 dead.  These people were desperate to suvive. fleeing one tragedy to only find another.

The United Kingdom has major internal concerns over immigration.  Students read local newspapers to discover that the BBC immigration dialogue dirth has "damaged the country," according to a July 9, 2011 article in the Telegraph.  The BBC News did report the bankruptcy of the only Immigration Advisory Service, leaving nearly 15,000 immigration cases without legal support in a July 11, 2011 article, and that immigrating students are vulnerable to exploitation in various university programs in a May 11, 2011 article on Glasgow Caledonian University.  

Concerns over fertility rates and unemployment figures also top the British news.  "Recent figures show that population increased by nearly half a million last year, driven by high levels of immigration and rising birth rates," according to the UK Daily Mail, July 14, 2011, at p. 4.  The Daily Telegraph reported on the same day that one in four babies is born to a foreign mother.  See "Foreigners and older mothers drive biggest baby boom since 1972," at 13.

The intersection between immigration and families has a very real, felt effect on any society.  Regent students at the Oxford program have learned and experienced that first hand.  They have been challenged toward how to build strong nations with strong families in framing immigration policy.