Structural adjustment Programs and their effects on global migration Essay Example

Bank and IMF impose SAPs as precautions for indebted nations to obtain loans,"[i] meaning that countries who badly need these loans cannot get them, forcing them to rely on other means of gaining capital.

Not only does this lead to the increase of crime, but also thousands of people leaving countries like the Philippines in hopes of escaping that culture and finding hope in another country. Meanwhile in their home country, however, things only get worse and worse as the country's poverty line seems to grow higher and higher.People in First world nations do not have it as bad as the people in the developing countries. In fact, it can be very beneficial from this system because industries can gain a lot from an increase in cheap labor. Despite what most people believe and what government agencies would have us think, SAPs and Welfare Reform are not good programs for the poor, and even less so for immigrants.

Though SAPs encourage impoverished people to migrate to wealthier communities in order to improve the quality of their lives, the condition of the poor really does not change. In addition, they cause forced migration due to the relocation of land. 1] The desperation of these migrants lead to an apathetic attitude by employers. Employers do not feel the urgency to improve working conditions, benefits, or salary due to these workers being more than willing to work for next to nothing.The current mentality is that if the workers are okay with it, then the employers have no obligation to do the right thing. In the article “Welfare Reform as We Know It”, GROWL tells a story of a

mother who believes the government rather my child and I live hand-to-mouth than see me get the education I'd need to get a job.

[2] The issue with SAPs and Welfare reform is not necessarily that it takes money away from the poor, but rather it creates an inescapable cycle where people who live in poor conditions cannot escape them. For my response to the statement “All migrants would fare better in the richer countries than their own impoverished countries” is that migrants would fare better in richer countries because they have poor living and working conditions, the lack of economic perspectives, and environmental problems in their own impoverished countries.