Immigration and British Social Policy Dissertation

Immigration and British Social Policy - Dissertation Example Building social capital 43 4.2. Promoting social inclusion 44 4.3. Ensuring social equality 45 5. Conclusions 46 References 49 List of Tables Table 1. Social cohesion: a social capital perspective 43 Table 2. Social cohesion: a social inclusion perspective 44 Table 3. Social cohesion: a social equality perspective 46 List of Figures Figure 1. Total long-term international migration estimates, UK, 2000–2010. 8 Figure 2. Recent trends in migrants’ flows. 25 Figure 3. Inflows of top 10 nationalities into the UK 25 Figure 4. Overseas nationals allocated a NI number, 2002 to 2006. 25 Figure 5. The conceptual framework of the study. 42 Acknowledgement The author would like to thank †¦ 1. Introduction 1.1. Research background A process of migration of humans between countries and continents, either as a result of difficult circumstances in a homeland or in search of better life, has taken place for centuries. But nowadays, in the era of growing globalisation, this phenome non has become especially outstanding, remarkable by its complex and multifaceted nature. Voicu (2009) defines immigration as â€Å"the act of entering a country, other than one’s native country, with the intention of living there permanently† (p.71). ... According to the United Nation Population Division (2006), in 2005 there were about 191 million migrants (foreign-born persons) in the world: 34 per cent of them lived in European Union (EU) countries, 23 per cent in Northern America, and 28 percent in Asia. Although these figures show that only a relatively small proportion of global population migrate (account of migrants was nearly 2.9 per cent of the total 6.5 billions in 2005), but the current trend in migration is remarkable by its scale and rate of growth, as during last two decades â€Å"the stock of world’s migrants almost doubled† (Wickramasekara 2007: p.3). It is also notable that roughly about 170 million of mentioned above 191 million migrants in the world (in 2005) were migrant workers and their families, i.e. people who â€Å"migrates from one country to another with a view to being employed otherwise than on his own account and includes any person regularly admitted as a migrant for employment† (W ickramasekara 2007: p.4). A majority of European countries also experience an increase of inward and outward flows of migrants, which happens during last two decades as a consequence of significant political and social changes. According to Boswell (2005: p.1), in 2001 net immigration in Europe amounted 3 per 1,000 inhabitants, and the region hosted a population of 56.1 million migrants, in comparing to 40.8 million in North America. These figures, taken along with the UNPD data above, indicate clearly that today’s Europe is a desired point of destination for migrants from every corner of the world, and experts predict further increasing of migrants’ population in European high-income countries, because the labour and skills