Causes of Illegal Immigration

According to the immigration data given by the US Department of Homeland Security, Mexico tops the charts when it comes to number of people immigrating illegally in the USA. The approximate, raw number of the immigrants given by the department is 6,650,000. These illegal immigration statistics in USA are a huge evidence of how grave this problem is in the USA and other first world countries and a few of the developing third world countries like India. It is evident that unless and until there is a very strong reason, no individual would leave his or her homeland and go to some other country. Let's take a look at the causes of illegal immigration in the following article.

Causes of Illegal Immigration in the United States

It is pretty clear that the South American countries neighboring USA, are no match to the US when it comes to the financial stability and prosperity. So there are a lot of immigrants from South America as the statistics mentioned above portray. Let us see some more illegal immigration facts.

Top Dollar
To elaborate on the economic factor and the strongest motivation individuals from others countries have to immigrate illegally in the USA, the flow of immigrants is obviously from the countries at a lower economic strata to a higher economic strata. Better economic conditions is the most prominent reason for people immigrating from South America to the US. But there are exceptions to this explanation, because there are illegal immigrants from Canada as well in the US.

Liberalizing Trade
One more of cause is the rapid globalization, leading to trade liberalization. This in turn has led to the opening up of domestic markets, displacing large chunks of agricultural labor and unskilled workers. These sections naturally so look for a better life and better opportunities through illegal immigration. This is what is being said to be reason for the Mexican farmers not being able to hold on to their own, as a result of the North American Free Trade Association NAFTA.

Visa and Immigration Technicalities
The above causes notwithstanding, experts opine that delays, costs, stringent regulations, cost and the whole Visa and work permit application process trigger the choice to bypass these procedures, culminating into illegal immigration in the United States. The typical waiting time for a Green Card application is 3 years, which will prove this point.

Population Explosion
The increasing population in a few under developed countries is causing a lot of problems like unemployment, housing, etc. In such a scenario those who are at the lower economic strata, will without doubt want to break free and look for greener pastures. The irony is that those countries which are under developed or developing are facing the problem of population leading to a shortage or resources and infrastructure. This is one of those blaring illegal immigration facts.

War and Imprisonment
We just witnessed what happened in Egypt and what has been happening in the middle east and in some other parts of the globe. These areas are always torn with violence, skirmishes and even full-fledged wars. Immigrating to a safer neutral region then becomes an option for the citizens of that region. As the whole system of that country has crumpled or not working properly, they immigrate illegally.

Escaping from criminal acts, too, can be a reason for immigrating to a destination country from the native country.

Family reunification, poverty and structural demands in developed states are few more causes of illegal immigration. It eventually boils down to quality living opportunities. All said and done, this issue is a grave one and if not addressed in time, can escalate to unmanageable levels.