An Assessment of the Impacts of Illegal Immigrants on Tanzania National Security:

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of illegal immigration on Tanzania national security. Review of literatures shows that there a little information about the impacts of illegal immigration on security threat in Tanzania, the researcher was driven to conduct the study given the scarce of information in the case study. The study was guided by three specific objectives namely; to examine the nature of illegal immigration in Tanzania, to ascertain the reason for influx illegal immigration in Tanzania and to describe the impacts of illegal immigration on Tanzania national security. Push Pull Theory and Theory of Intervening Opportunities guided the research objectives. The study adopted descriptive research design and mixed research approach was used. Study area was Tanga Region with a population involving Police, Prison and Immigration departments. One hundred and seventy respondents were used as the study representative chosen through purposive and cluster random sampling technique from the total population of Police officers, Immigration officers and Prison officers. Data was collected through closed questionnaires and semi-structured interview and was analyzed through descriptive and correlation analysis. Data were found to be both valid and reliable using Keyser Meyer Olkins (KMO) Test for validity and Cronbach Alpha test statistic for reliability. The study found that illegal immigrants mostly used water ways to enter Tanzania and they come through as refugee, documentation cheating and as businessmen. It was further fund that illegal immigrants pose threat on social and economic security in Tanzania as they are associated with armed robbery, drug smuggling and human trafficking. The study suggested that there is a need for the government to involve society more in order to spot illegal immigrants before they could bring more harm such as sensitize communities on the role of immigration, advance intelligence led immigration practice and harness immigration data for policy making.