To be very precise, immigration is a phenomenon that involves migration of individuals into another country. Mostly, immigration is associated to the migration of people that intend to obtain the permanent residency in the foreign country. Thus, an individual who migrates into a country in order to settle there permanently is an immigrant. In other words, an immigrant is a person who has not been born and brought up in a country where he intends to settle permanently.
The process of immigrating is a complex one. It involves an individual making himself adapt to a completely new environment all of a sudden. Reports say that Europe is the nation with largest number of immigrants in the world with a rough number of 70.6 million migrants.
There are basically two factors that play vital roles in motivating individuals to immigrate. One is the Push factor that refers to the emigration of individuals from their country of origin. The set of push factors may include poverty, torture, mass destruction, risks of war in their own land. The second one is Pull factor, which refers to the migration for education, availability of jobs, or to work and get specialization in specific fields. Besides, there are other factors that compel people to immigrate, such as personal relationships; or in order to change nationality.
The process of immigration is bound by a number of rules and these rules differ from country to country. There are countries that allow free movement of people, while others are very selective about the flow of immigrants. Normally, wealthy countries in the world are selective about permitting only the skilled, educated and wealthy immigrants.
Immigrating to a foreign country is common now-a-days, however, it’s not always easy though! Often, the process of immigration is stuck by natural, legal as well as social barriers. Some of the barriers in the immigration process include- country of origin, culture, and folks (natural barriers); and various rules and regulations associated to the immigration process (legal barriers).
