西方国家应该努力降低移民门槛Western countries should work to reduce the th

消极情绪主要表现在欧洲国家的移民身上。它们被视为对经济、文化和社会安全的威胁（Semyonov和Gorodzeisky，2006年）。由于欧洲人对移民的负面印象，右倾政党抓住机会加强对移民的负面观念，并推动对移民实行更严格的政策（Rustenbach，2010年）。然而，如果我们深入研究移民对当地社区和整个国家的影响，发现移民对经济、稳定、文化的负面影响是有限的。因此，我认为西方国家应该努力降低移民门槛。

Negative sentiments are mostly shown towards immigrants across European countries. They are regarded as threat to economy, culture and society safety (Semyonov and Gorodzeisky, 2006). Because of the negative images of the Europeans on the immigrants, the right leaning political parties grasp the chance to reinforce negative notions on immigrants and promote the introduction of stricter policies towards them (Rustenbach, 2010). However, if we examine deeply on the effects of immigrants on local community and the overall countries, the negative influence on economy, stability, culture is found to be limited. Therefore, I think the western countries should work to reduce the threshold of immigration.

对经济的不利影响只是一种想象中的心理思考。事实上，移民们为国家的工作做出了贡献。当西方国家的人们认为他们的富裕国家吸引了穷人时，自私就暴露了出来。他们希望维持自己的民族社会，他们只愿意对本国人民负责，而不愿意对其他国家的移民负责。（Waldinger，2010年）。他们持有这样一种观念，即移民们正在花费他们的福利和使用他们的公共资金。研究发现，受访者并不认为移民是他们的“经济竞争”（Careja和Andre_，2013年）。根据2013年新俄罗斯人的调查数据，超过50%的俄罗斯受访者认为俄罗斯需要移民，因为他们从事低收入工作，这对俄罗斯人的生活很重要，但俄罗斯人不愿意从事这些工作。因此，移民实际上为劳动力做出了贡献，但不仅花费了国家的金钱和福利。研究发现，兼职工人对移民的态度更为严厉，而全职工人则更为宽容。正如我们所讨论的，移民对经济的负面影响只是自私自利的假想。这并不真正存在。可以看到的是低收入工作的劳动力投入。接受高等教育的受访者对移民的容忍度更高。知识渊博的人应该更了解移民对国家的整体利益和危害。这可能意味着移民不会损害国家，也不会支持国家的经济。

即使移民人数减少到零，安全问题仍然存在。根据定量研究，大部分法国人认为“移民增加犯罪”（Waldinger，2010年）。
Adverse effects on economy is just an imagined psychological thinking. The reality is that the immigrants contribute to the countries with their work. Selfishness is exposed when people in the western countries think that their rich countries attract the poor. They want to maintain their national community in a way that they are only willing to be responsible for the people originally inside their countries, but not immigrants from other countries. (Waldinger, 2010). They are holding the ideology that the immigrants are spending off their welfare and using their public funds. Research found that respondents do not regard immigrants as their “economic competition” (Careja and Andreß, 2013). As indicated from the survey data of the 2013 NEORUSS, more than 50% of the respondents in Russia think that migrants are needed in Russia because they take up low-paid jobs which are important to the life of Russians but the Russians are not willing to do those jobs. As a result, immigrants actually contribute to the workforce, but not only spend the nations’ money and welfare. It is found that part-time workers took harsher stances towards the immigrants while full-time workers are more lenient.  As discussed, the negative effects on economy due to immigrants are just the selfish imagined speculation. This does not really exist. What can be seen is the input of workforce for low-paid jobs. Respondents with higher education show greater tolerance to the immigrants. The knowledgeable people should know more about the overall benefits and harms of the immigrants done to the countries. This may imply that immigration is not detrimental to the countries, not support the countries’ economies.

Safety problems still exist even the number of immigrants is reduced to zero. According to quantitative research, a large proportion of the French believe that “immigrants increase crime” (Waldinger, 2010). In Australia, the result is similar. Nearly 50% of the “white” Australian agreed with the statement (Bilodeau and Fadol, 2011). In the USA, about 40% of the residents thought that the immigrants “significantly increase crime” in 1997. However, the number has radically reduced by 10% in 2006 (Tunon and Baruah, 2012). In the NEORUSS survey done in Russia, about 50% of the Russians believed that “many migrants come to Russia not in order to work honestly, but to steal from Russians and weaken the Russian people”; while over 40% of the residents disagreed with this notion. The ideology of the locals in the western countries generally holds the stance that the immigrants are a threat to the safety and stability of the local community. Nevertheless, I believe that terrorist problems and safety issues still exist even if we ban all the immigrants from moving to the countries. Take 911 terrorist attack as an example, the terrorist were just crossing the borders with no intention of staying permanently in the US. However, this attack seems to contribute to the 10% of Americans viewing the immigrants are people who “significantly increase crime”. This is not reasonable because immigration and border security are two individual matters. The blind connection between the immigrants and terrorists is superficial and lack of evidence. “Contact theory” explains the growth of migrantophobia in Europe is due to the lack of contact to the immigrants (Hayes and Dowds, 2006). It holds the perspective that interaction in various ways, such as neighbours, friends and so on, heighten the level of tolerance towards the immigrants (Bevelander and Otterbeck, 2010). Case studies found that personal interaction can significantly change perception an attitude towards the immigrants. People who have personal interaction with the immigrants view them as people who are willing to work in a different country rather than a “scary mop”(Kosmarskaya, 2016). In the lack of personal interaction, external evaluations in the public can considerably affect the perceptions of the immigrants, stirring up rumours and fears (Kosmarskaya, 2016). It is obvious that negative information regarding the immigrants is manipulated to arouse public fear with a political aim (Escandell and Ceobanu, 2009). The politicians are making use of the lack of contact between the local citizens and the immigrants to arouse fear between tehm. To put the blame on the ethnic minorities for the safety problems is problematic and non-humanistic. 

Culture clash is feared while culture club is resulted. “Ethno-cultural threat” is always a concern to the host community. People are afraid of the ethnic minorities for no reasons. In France, a considerable number of the French believe that the ideas and culture of the immigrants do not add to the country’s advancement (Waldinger, 2010). They do not appreciate the diversities of cultures and ideas of the immigrants. Americans are not unanimous in their stances towards the effects of the immigrants’ culture brought to the local American society. Opinions are much divided to the two extremes. Half of the Americans believe that the society can be more diversified with the immigrants while others argue their culture is a threat to the American traditional values (Tunon and Baruah, 2012). The half of the Americans believe that the cultures of the immigrants can adversely affect their own cultures and traditions; while no evidence can be found to prove the harm. This is only a speculation from them. Opinions of the Russians towards the culture of the immigrants are much more diversified. Nearly 60% of the respondents think that ethnic diversity can strengthen Russia in some aspects and weaken Russia in some aspects. Over 20% of the Russians think that ethnic diversity harms the country (NEORUSS 2013). Böltken (2003) points out that integration problems and conflicts are “normal” problems between local residents and immigrants. Dramatization of the problems does no good to both sides. He is rather objective on the problems which are seen to be brought up by the immigrants. I agree with his point. Nowadays, in this globalized era, a number of people move to and from the western countries and eastern countries. Cultural clash is likely to occur. For the sake of globalization and modernism, migration should not be a problem for a specific group of people. Even the “white” people from the western countries go to the eastern countries to find jobs with higher wages and live with lower tax, why do people think that the immigrants can harm their the traditions of their countries? Do the people from the western countries regard themselves as a harm to the Asian cultures when they go there to find jobs and travel in eastern countries? Be fair to the ethnic minorities! Cultural diversity is a must in this era of globalization. 

As we have discussed above, the rejection on the immigration of the immigrants are based on weak grounds. It lacks valid evidence supporting the objection. Public fear is stirred up by the politicians for political ends to scare the residents of the western countries and arose their perception that the immigrants are of detrimental harm to the local communities. This is shameful because the immigrants are the underprivileged who definitely need help from others. Shelters should be provided for them based on humanistic reasons. Furthermore, the immigrants are able to take up low-paid jobs, adding to the prosperity and productivity of the countries. They do not spend up the welfare of the countries; rather, they contribute to the countries. The blindly looking down on them only strengthens the stereotypes of them. Based on humanistic reasons, for the sake of the countries’ prosperity, the various western countries should work together to embrace more immigrants. #p#分页标题#e#

Reference List

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