By the process, migration or the outgoing population influences the society, economic and environment both at the places of origin and destination. These effects may be favourable or harmful to the ecology, society and economy.
It has been rightly pointed out by some of the leading experts of population that each migrant by nature seeks to create something of the original milieu in the midst of the new environment and consequently enriches the culture and civilization.
The main consequences of migration have been briefly described below:
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The place of origin, the place of destination, the individuals and families of the migrants undergo a qualitative and quantitative change in their population and demographic structures.
In general, people from the crowded and overpopulated regions out migrate to the areas of scanty population with strong resource base.
In other words, it leads to re-allocation of human resources with a view to achieve a better balance between human resources and physical resources.
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Consequently, the population-resource relationship of the two areas involved in the process of migration gets modified significantly as a result of the movement.
The migration of people from one place to another brings a tangible transformation in the demographic characteristics.
The absolute number of population, its density, growth, fertility, mortality, age, sex, literacy and occupational structure get transformed. At the place of immigration, an increase in the density of population brings more pressure on resources.
The new arrivals may also enhance the capacity to exploit its resource potential more scientifically. The outmigration of the educated and technically trained people into an area improve the literacy rate and quality of life in the region.
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In both the regions (place of origin and place of destination), the emigrants affect the society, demography, culture and economy. This point may be explained by citing an example.
Suppose if ‘X’ persons leave country ‘A’ and migrate to country ‘B’, what change takes place in the size of the two populations.
The commonsense answer is that the population of country ‘A’ will decrease and that of country ‘B’ will increase. This generalization is, however, true only in short run.
If the typically young migrants have their children in their new country, its fertility rate may go up, while that of their native country goes down. Since the remaining population of country ‘A’ will then is older on the average, its death rate may go up, while that of country ‘B’ goes down.
In short, after one generation, the transfer of ‘X’ persons will in fact amount to ‘X’ plus a certain proportion based on the migration’s effects on the population structure, and rates of population growth of the two (A and B) countries.
Thus, the population structure, sex composition and workforce of both the countries, regions will be substantially affected.
While the resources, their utilization, society and economy are affected, the emigrants also face a lot of problems of adaptation.
The people who migrate from the rural areas to the urban industrial areas suffer from the lack of open space, good housing and fresh air. The highly polluted atmosphere of the new place of work (urban centers), the toxic fumes and dust affect their health adversely.
They also have to adapt to the new dietry habits and timings of food. There are evidences to prove that the incidence of respiratory diseases, cardiac problems and cancer among the people who migrate from rural areas to industrial towns is very high.
Sometimes, the physical contact of the people belonging to two different racial or ethnic backgrounds may change the biological characteristics of the people.
Greater interaction between the people of Africa (Negroes) and that of Americans and Europeans have affected the racial characteristics of these people. Consequently, some of the diseases like AIDS, which were inoffensive, formerly, have become now deadly.
When large-scale immigration takes place as it happened during the 18th and 19th centuries in America in which millions of people emigrated from European countries to Anglo-America and Latin America, the cultural values of the two groups of people underwent substantial transformation.
The immigrants bring with them their language, religion and cultural values. Integration and amalgamation of people become serious problems when the people having different languages stay together.
For example, the French and English in Canada; the Dutch and English in South Africa; the Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in South-West Asian Arab countries; and the Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are confronted with such type of problems.
As a matter of fact, the migrants not only try to preserve their religion, culture, language and customs but also try to spread them.
Whenever people belonging to different religious groups move and start living with the people professing other religious faiths, it may either mean a healthy spread of all religions in areas or may cause people of one religious faith to flee for fear of suppression and persecution by the others.
The immigration of the Catholic, French and British Protestants in Canada and the multitude of Asian religions to UK are the examples where a healthy spread of different religious faiths has emerged.
Contrary to this, the Jews and Arabs in West Asia provide an example of the latter category where followers of one religion have been suspicious of their persecution and suppression.
The dietary habits of people at both the ends are also substantially influenced. For example, the Indians and Chinese who migrated to UK, USA and other countries opened the restaurants and hotels in which they serve the dishes of their countries.
It is because of this reason that Idly, Dosa, Biryani, Tandoori, Kabab, Samosa, Rasgullah and Barfi are increasingly becoming popular among the British and Europeans.
Similarly, the Chinese dishes like Chowmein has gained popularity in the western world. The continental breakfast (bread, butter, toast and eggs) is becoming more popular in urban India, Bangladesh and Pakistan which provide an example of the influence of English rulers on the upper and middle classes of their colonies.
The interaction of people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds when staying together lead to the enrichment of civilization this may be said as the greatest benefit to human society from migration.