Sat Nam, I trust this finds you all well and good!
Many countries are experiencing this, at both sides of the coin, so to speak.
None of it is pleasant. The immigrants, legal and illegal, oftenly experience awful conditions.
Countries like France have, in a very foolish move, attempted to put parts of the problem under the rug, so to speak, by banning all religious garb in public works and schools. It does the opposite of what the French government says it will do. It will foster anger and resentment, rather than quell it. (We Sikhs have felt the fallout of that one!)
Countries like Saudi Arabia import people from other countries, including India, to do the work most Saudi citizens consider "beneath" them. Those from the other countries often live in apalling conditions.
The United States has similar problems.
In light of these and many other observations that could be made, I am going to proceed to bring up something which may upset many reading this, so I am immediately apologizing in advance. I do not wish to upset anyone or make anyone angry, but the topic I am about bring into this thread is one which could be called a "flashpoint" topic- one which many people find almost too distasteful to discuss. It is the issue of population, and distribution of population.
To really thoroughly examine this situation, we would have to step back, as it were, and look at the world as if we are looking at a globe or a big map of the world.
So, imagine we have done just that. Where do you see the big population concentrations? Big cities, of course, the world over. Yes, and that is where many immigrants, legal and illegal, go because that is where the money to be made is. Yes, that is also where the crminals go, because, that, also, is where the money to be made is.
Now, let's look again. Where are the rural populations? Farms and ranches, and on the coasts, fishing villages.
Some trends we should keep in mind are, regarding all these things, the increasing stresses and strains the cities are experiencing because the of burgeoning populations- Los Angels and Calcutta come to mind, as examples- and the rise of the huge corporate farms, such as the ones controlled by that company Monsanto (home of the genetically modified seed- and God and Guru only know what other freakish monsters are being cooked up in the Monsanto minds and labs)-displacing the smaller family farms. As the family goes into debt (and some farmers are so despondent they commit suicide) the farm gets bought out by the big corporation, and so the family members go to the city to find work, increasing the population of the city that much more, and so straining the resources thereof.
There are too many people in the world, and the population is not evenly distributed. China recognized this and now limits the number of children people may have through monetary incentives to keep the number of children low. Other countries may well follow suit.
The imbalances are certainly catching up with us in a fast way. When people feel the need to leave their home country and go to a new country, whether legally or illegally, what does that tell us? One thing it signals is that the government of the home country is failing certainly a portion of the population in some form. People come from Mexico to the United States because they feel there is more hope in the U.S. for them and their families in the U.S. than in Mexico. They leave the Punjab for the U.K. for the same reason.
What can we do? The first thing that comes to mind is: Education, education, education.
Obviously, the government of Mexico really does not seem to care, or it would do things to give incentives to its citizens to stay in Mexico. Same with Punjab, I would think.
We can do what we can to educate others as much as possible, and this is certainly where the Internet can come in.
It was through the Internet I found out about organizations like
www.kiva.org
and
www.sewa.com
where you can give micro-loans to people in villages in India to assist them in starting their own businesses and education centers. (I find it easier to just donate.)
It's really working, and the loans are paid back in full in a remarkably short period of time.
Education means empowerment, and it seems that empowerment is just what a lot of governments are dead set against giving their citizens, so many said citizens leave. Sad, because if those governments realized that by educating and empowering their citizens, everyone, including those in government would be far better off in both the long and the short run.
When all is said and done, eventually we shall see the rise of more and more people getting more and more self sufficient and reluctant to rely so much on centralized governments to fill the needs of the populace, as they see those in government less and less able or willing to do their share. Eventually people will realize that too many in too small a space does not solve anything.