One of the risks that illegal migrants face when they illegally cross the border is that they risk being apprehended by the country they are migrating to. The border law enforcement agencies of the country they are migrating to will arrest the immigrants and probably depot them.
If the illegal immigrants are apprehended and/or deported, it will cost them time which could have been used to earn wages and salary. This time could have been used to work legally in their home country and in so doing could have earned them money; this comes out clearly if they are arrested for a long time. In such situations, they will lose more (Borjas, 1995).
There are also other effects like psychological effects which come in when they are caught. They will stay with the effects and will affect their productivity. Even if the illegal immigrants are not got while crossing the border, there come risks like coyote prices and also risks associated with health. To minimize the chances of being caught and apprehended, illegal immigrants pay coyotes; these are smugglers who know which area of the border are not patrolled by forces in the border (Gathmann, 2008). If the immigrants are going to the new country for better paying jobs, which is the case in most situations, the coyotes will hike the prices which will not be practical for most illegal immigrants.
Another risk that the illegal immigrants face is the extreme temperatures that are associated with the new country they are migrating to. A good example of this is that of illegal Mexican immigrants to the United States. Given the fact that most wage prices are increased during summer, most illegal immigrants illegally enter the United States during summer. This therefore forces most illegal immigrants to cross the border in deserts which are not guarded like Sonoran Desert which is found in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California. Since temperatures are very high during summer season in these regions, the illegal immigrants will risk dehydration due to intense heat in these areas. This might lead to deaths in most cases. In the year 2004, there were 69 people found to have died in the desert alone. Another 76 were found dead in the same Sonoran Desert the following year (McKenzie, & Rapoport, 2007).
There are also the risks of political business cycles. In most countries, the governors and the government which power will implement tougher immigration laws during election years. The immigrants might be caught during election years as the sitting governors impose stricter laws during electioneering years (Dávila, Pagán, & Grau, 1999).
Education is another risk that illegal immigrants face. This is given the fact that when illegal immigrants cross the border, they might not get access to schools of the alien country for their children. This is true because of the fact that most immigrants fear being apprehended when their children are asked of full identification documents while they are in school. They therefore will prefer having their children to study in lower less competitive schools which in the long run beat the login as to why they preferred the alien country in the first case. Since many immigrants go to the alien country for better employment and therefore being in a position to provide for their families, this reason will therefore not be met because in the end, the illegal immigrants will not provide these services to the families after all (McKenzie, & Rapoport, 2007).
Another risk that is faced by the illegal immigrants is that of facing poor working conditions in the alien country. Since they fear being reprieved when they are discovered that they are in the country illegally, these illegal immigrants will be taken advantage of by the employers in the alien country. They risk being exploited by these new employers. This will result in poor working conditions and may result to deteriorating health conditions in the new country.
References
Borjas, G. (1995). Assimilation and changes in cohort quality revisited: What happened to immigrant earnings in the 1980s? Journal of Labor Economics, 13, 201–245.
Dávila, A., Pagán, J., & Grau, M. (1999). Immigration reform, the INS, and the distribution of interior and border enforcement resources. Public Choice, 99, 327–345.
Gathmann, C. (2008). Effects of enforcement on illegal markets: Evidence from migrant smuggling along the southwestern border. Journal of Public Economics, 92, 1926–1941.
McKenzie, D., & Rapoport, H. (2007). Network effects and the dynamics of migration and inequality: theory and evidence from Mexico. Journal of Development Economics, 84, 1–24.
