Презентация по английскому языку Immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the movement of people into a destination country to which they are not native or do not possess its citizenship in order to settle or reside there.

An immigrant is somebody who goes to settle permanently in a different country.

The USA - a nation of immigrants

Apart from Native Americans who were living in North America when people first arrived there from Europe, all Americans have ancestors who were immigrants. In the USA word immigrant is often used with a positive meaning. People are proud of their ancestors who were immigrants, came with very little and built a better life for themselves.

The main period of immigration was between 1800 and 1917. Early in this period, many more immigrations arrived from Britain and Germany, and many Chinese went to California. Later, the main groups were Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans and Scandinavians. Many Jews went from Germany and East Europe.

Most Americans have a clear idea of what life was like for the immigrants: they left home because they were poor and thought they would have better opportunities in the USA. Most travelled in steerage, so arrived weak or ill. They were asked questions and examined by a doctor before being allowed to enter the USA. Once in the USA, life was not easy. Nevertheless, slowly they improved their lives and many wrote home to encourage others to come.

The Immigration Act of 1917, and other laws that followed it, limited the number of immigrants who could settle in the USA and the countries that they could come from.

Immigration into Britain

People have been coming into Britain for centuries, but immigration only became an issue in the 1960s. After World War II, Britain needed more workers and admitted citizens of Commonwealth countries without restriction. Many came from the Caribbean and from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Nearly 500000 Commonwealth citizens came to Britain before 1962, many of whom were later joined by their wives and children.

When there were no longer enough jobs the Commonwealth Immigrants Act (1962) was passed to restrict the numbers entering Britain. Immigration is now strictly controlled. Normally, only people from the European Union and certain Commonwealth citizens can get permission to live in Britain. The right to stay may also be given to people from other countries who have special skills, and to asylum seekers and refugees. Britain now accepts about 50000 immigrants every year.

The 2015 European migrant crisis

The 2015 European migrant crisis, or European refugee crisis, arose through the rising number of refugees and economic migrants, from areas such as the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and the Balkans, coming to the European Union across the Mediterranean Sea and Southeast Europe, and applying for asylum. The majority of the refugees come from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.

The term has been used since April 2015, when at least five boats carrying almost two thousand migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated at more than 1,200 people.

The shipwrecks took place in a context of ongoing conflicts in several North African and Middle Eastern countries as well as the refusal by several European Union governments to fund the Italian-run rescue option Operation Mare Nostrum, which was replaced by Frontex's Operation Triton in November 2014. On 23 April 2015, EU governments agreed to triple funding for border patrol operations in the Mediterranean so that they would be equal to the previous capabilities of Operation Mare Nostrum, but Amnesty International immediately criticized the EU's decision not "to extend Triton's operational area" to the area previously covered by Mare Nostrum. Some weeks later, the European Union decided to launch a new operation based in Rome, called EU Navfor Med, under the command of the Italian Admiral Enrico Credendino.

According to Eurostat, EU member states received 626,000 asylum applications in 2014, the highest number since the 672,000 applications received in 1992. In 2014, decisions on asylum applications in the EU made at the first instance resulted in more than 160,000 asylum seekers being granted protection status, while a further 23,000 received protection status on appeal. The rate of recognition of asylum applicants was 45% at the first instance and 18% on appeal. Four states - Germany, Sweden, Italy and France- received around two-thirds of the EU's asylum applications and granted almost two-thirds of protection status in 2014; while Sweden, Hungary and Austria were among the top recipients of EU asylum applications per capita, when adjusted for their own populations.