The Impact of Immigration on Social Structure

In 2020, the total estimated population of people living in a country other than their countries of birth was 281 million people, which is over three times more than the 1970 estimate. Due to rapid urbanisation, economic structures and changing environments, the rate of international migration (immigration) is expected to increase in the coming decades. How will this impact society and social structure?

There has been a fear that immigrants might replace native workers’ jobs upon entering a new country and economy. However, the reality often differs. Migrants frequently fill roles and jobs that natives don’t want, or are less inclined to take, such as more labour-intensive jobs or less client-facing jobs, like cleaners or supermarket workers. This means that, unless immigrants possess the skills needed for more client-facing jobs, natives are less likely to become displaced. 

In terms of social structure, immigrants play a crucial role in both contributing to society and the economy. As immigration and the population increases, countries must create new job opportunities to accommodate the influx of people, therefore allowing the economy to grow consumption and production of goods and services increase. In addition, due to declining low birth rates in developed nations, immigration has been one of the solutions to combat a growing ageing population, benefiting the economy.

This means that an influx of immigrants may not negatively impact society or social structure due to the fact that they may fill out job roles that are unwanted or underprovided in the economy. When these jobs are filled, and firms and consumers become more productive, the overall economy grows and benefits, leading to an improvement in the standard of living, socioeconomic status and social structure. 

However, globalisation and a growing global education system has enabled more people to move up the socio-economic ladder through education. This trend could cause an influx in the number of expats - often wealthy, educated professionals working abroad. For instance, Dubai has one of the highest expat populations in the world - only 15% of the 3 million people living in Dubai are native Emiratis. 

This influx could potentially impact social structure, as large injections of educated, high-socioeconomic-status expats into the population may negatively or positively impact the labour market, which could then affect natives’ standard of living. This would  counteract the argument that immigrants may be replacing or “taking” job opportunities for the natives, but this would be dependent on the classification of expats, whether they are regarded as part of the immigrant population or not, as immigrants is often used to describe those in less privileged economic situations (such as migrant workers). 

To conclude, there are different perspectives when thinking about whether immigration has a positive or negative impact - the intersection between the economic, social and educational effects of immigration also makes this argument more complex. What are your thoughts on this topic?

Works Cited

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