the incentive for rationalisation, keeping low productivity firms viable" (Castles and Miller, 1993, p75). An example of how immigration is not needed for labour shortages is Japan. Even though it is faced with labour shortages it still resists importing foreign labour, due to concerns about the effects on its cultural homogeneity. Instead it has developed "more capital - intensive and less labour intensive technology, by incorporating new participants such as women to the labour market, or by moving outside the country to areas where labour is cheaper" (Bali, 1997, p 209). However, there are strong arguments to suggest that immigration is economically beneficial to a society. Castles and Miller argue that it was the "high net immigration countries, like Germany, Switzerland, France and Australia, which had the highest economic growth rates in the-1945 - 1973 period. Countries with relatively low net immigration (Britain and the USA) had much lower growth rates" (Castles and Miller, 1993, p 76). Also the factor of migrant businesses can have a positive effect on a economy: "Immigrants, as noted, create more jobs than they themselves fill and recent immigrants from abroad create as much employment growth as internal migrants from other areas of the United States. One source of the positive employment effects of immigration is the retention of industries that would otherwise have moved overseas. If no Mexican immigration to Los Angeles County had occurred between 1970 and 1980, for example, 53,000 production jobs, 12,000 high paying non-production jobs, and 25,000 jobs in related industries would have been ...
