In recent years, New Zealand has accepted a huge influx of immigrants. It is often argued that there has been an excessive number of immigrants, while others disagree and support that New Zealand needs to keep going for its population growth. This essay agrees that New Zealand shouldn’t accept an excessive number of immigrants because the number of immigrants significantly affects the environment. Accordingly, this essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantage of high levels of immigration.
Firstly, this essay will focus on the advantages from the perspectives such as economics, technology, population. Secondly, this essay will focus on the disadvantages from the perspectives such as environment, social problem, infrastructure.The most important advantage is that cultural diversity is a crucial element of economic growth. A diverse workforce can create a competitiveness in the economy and revitalize the economy.
In addition, the diverse workforce leads to the expansion of employment opportunities to resolve labour shortage such as manual labour, unskilled labour, seasonal labour, skilled labour. Furthermore, it contributes more in taxes to fill the pension gap for the aging society. For example, “Around 97 per cent of businesses in New Zealand employ fewer than 20 people and many of these small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are run by ethnic people.
Their many connections and overseas experiences provide a huge amount of potential.” (The office of ethnic communities (2012).Another advantage is that the diverse workforce is an essential part of technical growth because it brings new skill sets and overlaps the skills gaps.
According to Kerby ; Burns (2012), “Bringing together workers with different qualifications, backgrounds, and experience are all keys to effective problem-solving on the job. Similarly, diversity breeds creativity and innovation”. For instance, if the New Zealand government projects the reconstruction of Christchurch city after the disastrous earthquake, it needs the most effective method of construction because all buildings need to be made more earthquake resistant. Accordingly, if it can get worthy skilled labour of earthquake resistant buildings, the project would be a huge success.
Another benefit is that it is a crucial factor in population growth. Especially, more young workers in the country can contribute to the local community and can sustain the services for an ageing population. Accordingly, “The smaller towns and rural parts of the country will have populations that are closer to the national average in terms of diversity” (Tan, L. (2016). Similarly, immigrants are an essential element to cope with the falling birthrate. For example, if some immigrant families including children move into the country town, or some immigrants get married to local people and then create children, it can reduce the average age of the population of the town, and leads to the revitalization of the town.However, there are drawbacks. The most significant one is the effect of immigration on infrastructure.
There is a huge imbalance between the present infrastructure and the population needs in New Zealand. Furthermore, a huge influx of immigrants creates many problems. For instance, heavy traffic is one of the serious problems and causes additional problems like a chain reaction such as traffic jams, a shortage of parking, air pollution. In addition, the rapid population growth creates the shortage of resources such as water, power, gas, also creates a housing shortage.Another disadvantage is that it can be the aggravation of social problems.
The rapid population growth can cause an increase in the crime rate such as illegal imports, also an increase in a number of illegal immigrants. Furthermore, Dogra (2011) states that the local population who has lost out on jobs caused by immigrants and unable to move on to new circumstances or due to lack of finances can take to crime to retaliate against the immigrants. Similarly, immigrants can disturb the social order. For example, in terms of protection of marine products, some of the immigrants have no respect for seafood and have no knowledge about the fishing rules in New Zealand.
Thus, they capture a large amount of seafood illegally.Furthermore, excessive immigration causes the drop of the public service such as education, medical care, public transport. The public service is an essential part of everyday life also it can significantly affect on the quality of life. However, depending on the rapid population growth, if people cannot receive those worthy services, they would have unnecessary stresses. For example, even if people don’t want to waste time more than necessary, they must spend a huge amount of time in the traffic jam, or in the waiting room at the hospital, or on the waiting list of kindergarten for their own child necessarily. This could lead to undue stress.
Overall, I strongly believe that the balance between infrastructure and population is the key point to sustain an ideal environment. To retain the balance means that the population can have a comfortable everyday life. On the other hand, if it cannot get the right balance, the population begins feeling stress in everyday life. Even if the diverse workforce can greatly contribute to economic growth, if the balance has largely broken caused by a huge influx of immigrants, it can lead the population to a negative chain in everyday life. For example, immigration is one of the serious factors in a housing shortage and causes additional problems of the shortage of infrastructure such as water main, sewage disposal, garbage disposal. Furthermore, the government seriously needs to organize to construct more motorways and more public transport such as trains, subways. Otherwise, many people will choose to live in urban areas rather than rural areas due to convenience in everyday life, even if they really prefer to live in rural areas.In conclusion, the diverse workforce is a conclusive factor of economic growth.
It doesn’t just sustain the economy, but also greatly boosts the economy. On the other hand, the number of immigrants has a significant influence on the environment and causes a huge imbalance between infrastructure and population. In short, if the New Zealand government carefully analyses the situation and accurately controls the balance between infrastructure and population, the population can avoid suffering from the imbalance. If not, the New Zealand government shouldn’t accept a huge number of immigrants positively.
