Homo Sapiens — A Migrant Race For 2 Million Years

Immigration isn’t new. Countries have long benefited from immigration and diversity: from a time when migrants wandered in small bands and began crossing continents around 2 million years ago.

Today our nations have been richly-served by the work, economic and cultural contribution of those who have chosen to settle outside their own countries — and help change each one for the better.

People who make a conscious choice to re-start their lives in another country are making a huge commitment. It is, quite simply, more challenging to build a successful life in a land that is not the nation of your birth. I’m not speaking of migrants who are forced from their homes by conflict or natural disaster, but those for whom leaving is a proactive decision to make a better life. The choice comes with additional challenges. It stands to reason that the people who do choose to leave their homes for bigger careers or to start a successful business are often entrepreneurs or highly skilled — sometimes both.

Local and national economies are usually lifted with the arrival of immigrant workers. Those who arrive to look for work, rather than start a business or step onto a corporate career ladder, don’t generally compete for the same jobs as the national workforce, often, instead, filling complementary roles and increasing productivity. They expand culture by introducing new ideas and customs. Yes, they bring change, but so does everything else that’s happening in the world. In the US immigrants brought the country blue jeans, Google, tacos, Apple, hip-hop, jazz and more.

Immigrants pay taxes. That contributes to infrastructure development and maintenance. We are also living in an increasingly global society. Immigrants promote cross-cultural understanding and affinities that encourage partner-working to support commonly-held causes — such as ending poverty and hunger.

There are very few countries where immigration is new and very few that haven’t seen their own sons and daughters leave to start a new life in other territories.

The current US president’s parents may have met in New York, but he is the son of a Scottish mother and a father descended from German immigrants. He is married to a woman from Slovenia, his first wife was a Czech.

His predecessor was from a richly diverse family tree. Through his mother, born in Wichita, Kansas, but of mostly of English descent, Barack Obama’s family tree is further enriched with some German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh ancestry. His father was Kenyan. The first mixed-race president was a Harvard law graduate who went on to lead the US and win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The British built an empire of around 60 countries and still has 14 overseas territories from The Falkland Islands and Gibraltar to Bermuda. It has seen invasion (immigration) from Vikings, Romans and more. Britain is a small island, and birthplace of one of the most efficient and enthusiastic populations of émigrés in the world. Italy is the birthplace of some of the world’s most tenacious and successful explorers throughout history.

Scratch the surface just a little. We are all immigrants.

Source: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/how-immigrants-benefit-society-trump/