Should Illegal Immigrants Be Made Legal Citizens? As of 2013, eleven million immigrants are living in the United States of America (Immigration); however, their reasons for coming to America vary. Abuse by the government, poverty, and drug crimes are all reasons illegal immigrants come to America. Illegal immigrants travel to America to achieve their dreams because in their native countries all these problems make it hard for them to achieve their dreams. Illegal immigrants want to be accepted here in the US so they can achieve their dreams just like Americans can achieve theirs. Immigrants who migrated over to the United States have spent years building a decent life here and deserve citizenship and most importantly, respect. Illegal immigrants do many necessary jobs in America that are undesirable to most Americans. Farm working, fruit picking, construction work, private babysitting, dish washing, and packing meat are many jobs that Americans don’t like to fulfill these jobs. In a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal newspaper “44 out of 46 economists believed that illegal immigration to the United States was beneficial to the American economy.”(Immigration by the Numbers) According to recent studies, eighteen percent of illegal immigrants are construction workers, seventeen percent work in hotels and restaurants, sixteen percent are in manufacturing, six percent clean and do landscaping, and three percent of the illegal immigrants are working in agriculture (The Shifting); however, Americans believe that immigrants are working mainly in agriculture. Andrew Sum, an economist and the director of labor market studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts argued that if it weren’t for illegal immigrants, th... ... middle of paper ... ...s when immigrants are doing them a favor. Immigration lawyer Greg Siskind stated “if all these illegal immigrants disappeared from this country, the economy would collapse.” (Immigration Lawyer) Studies show that illegal immigrants help the U.S. economy grow by having cheap labor, while other studies show that illegal workers increase competition for low-skilled jobs. Illegal immigrants come to America and expect respect from Americans because illegal immigrants know that they are benefitting the economy just by working in a field or for a person who doesn’t care about where they come from. Considering the statistics, it would be a very grand idea for America to give citizenship and freedom to illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants will continue to benefit the economy, whether they are legal or not, they know they are and will make a bigger difference in America.
The other aspect is that illegal immigrants have positive effects in the U.S economy by decreasing consumer cost. Most of the illegal immigrants came to the U.S to fill the secondary labor market; therefore products and services become cheaper because illegal immigrants work for lower wages, thus providing a kind of subsidy to American consumers. Nadadur Ramanujan in his article “Illegal Immigrants” states that, “Because illegal immigrants serves to allow businesses to minimize their cost of production in the secondary sector, it positively impacts income of all native workers by decreasing
It is said that immigrants come to this country for a better life, then that is what they should try to do for themselves. In most cases they just end up working low-paying, dead end jobs. If you come to america for a better life then you should put forth the effort to better yourself rather than just barely scraping by. Most immigrants tend to work the manual labor jobs that do not require a lot of other human interaction. “ While U.S. government mounds its huge effort to stop people from entering the country illegally, many American employers continually show their eagerness to give them jobs.” (Crest 72) Many immigrants use government assistance such as welfare and food stamps. Immigrants using government assistance tends to anger people because they feel like illegals are using the taxes that they pay to live their life while not paying taxes on their own. Trump suggests building a wall but I do not believe that will work very well at warding off the influx of immigrants, they will find other ways of entering our great country. Some argue that immigrants do the jobs that most Americans would not want to do themselves, at a much lower pay rate. Often illegals are paid under the minimum wage because employers do not have to register them as employees. Many illegals are often seen working in the construction business, gardening, roofing, concrete work, house cleaning, etc. This is because most of those are hard work or thought of as blue collar work that often does not pay enough to support a family. This being, they often have to work more than the average native born
Illegal immigration has many diverse effects on the United States economy. Some people argue that the negative outweigh the positive, but there is no doubt that immigrants do carry a critical role.
The United States cannot afford to lose the economic gains that come from immigrant labor. The economy would be suffering a greater loss if it weren’t for immigrants and their labor contributions, especially during the 2008 U.S. recession. The U.S. economy would most likely worsen if it weren’t for the strong labor force immigrants have provided this country. Despite the mostly negative views native-born Americans have towards immigrants and the economy, their strong representation in the labor forces continues today. Immigrants aren’t taking “American” jobs, they are taking the jobs that Americans don’t want (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Immigrants contribute to various aspects of the economy, including brining valuable skills to their jobs, contributing to the cost of living through taxes, and the lacked use of welfare, healthcare, and social security when compared to native-born Americans, showing that the United States cannot afford to lose the contribution immigrants bring into the economy.
While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy. Illegal immigration has helped in the nation’s economic growth by enabling businesses to prosper, as the illegal immigrants have provided cheap labor and long hours of hard work. Businesses benefit from illegal immigration by saving a large amount of money since they are not providing insurance, both medical and retirement plans for their illegal workers. This results in a lower production cost for the companies and lower prices for goods and services for everyone. Although illegal immigrants may not contribute directly to the economy of the nation in the aspect of paying taxes like income tax, they contribute to the economy in the form of sales taxes by purchasing the supplies they need in the same way native citizens or legal immigrants do in order to survive and live comfortably....
Study after study fails to find evidence that immigrants harm American workers. A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study by Ottaviano and Peri finds that the influx of foreign workers between 1990 and 2004 raised the average wage of U.S.-born workers by 2 percent. Nine in ten American workers gained; only one in ten, high school dropouts, lost slightly, by 1 percent (Dangelo 236). Recent studies found that immigrants are a net economic gain for the nation in times of economic boom as well as in recession. Despite national gains, immigration may be an economic burden or create unw...
They have been very effective to the economy and keeping the undocumented aliens will improve the country in the future. One of the reasons to show how effective Illegal immigrants are to the economic system is the employment sector. Undocumented aliens are always ready and willing to work, especially doing the trades that most citizens are not will to do. An example of jobs done by illegal immigrants can includes house keepers, construction workers, janitors, agriculture and other food related businesses. The United State unemployment level is near 10 percent, a lot of people believe that illegals are taking jobs from the native, but when the United Farm Workers union launched a campaign offering to connect unemployed people to farm jobs, only three percent accepted the offer out of thousands of Americans that inquired (Steve Baragona). The analysis from United Farm Workers union gives evidence that Americans do not find most jobs suitable for their welling being, which results in employers hiring illegal workers as a
Many of these immigrants are seeking asylum or work in this country, and are willing to do the migrant worker and manual jobs that most Americans would not choose to do. When these tasks are performed, immigrants can be - and are - productive and useful members of society. With illegal immigrants, the demand of low wage workers will be fulfilled at all times, thus making for a much better economy. Since immigrants will choose rather unpopular jobs, they will make for a better business and more money. With the help of illegal immigration, the lives of poor migrants will be improved because there will be more help. These people are provided liberty and able to live a free
Those who support immigrants being protected by the law believe that immigrants help the economy by creating lower wages which enables companies to make better profits. According to Becky Akers and Donald J. Boudreaux, immigrants “should be allowed to contribute to the United States economy in the Constitutional and legal precepts that guarantee all immigrants the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the United States” (22). If immigrants were not here in the United States, the jobs they do might not even get done by anyone else (Isidore 103). Immigrants fill up the jobs that many Americans do not want. “Specialization deepens. Workers’ productivity soars, forcing employers to compete for their time by offering higher pay” (Akers and Boudreaux 25). As researcher Ethan Lewis said, “Economics professor, Patricia Cortes, studied the way immigrants impact prices in 25 large United States metropolitan areas. She discovered that a 10-percent increase in immigration lowered the price...
Contrary to popular opinion, illegal immigrants do not contribute to the U.S. economy. Instead they cost more by using government provided services, taking jobs from native workers, and reducing wages by competition with native workers. Proudly a nation of immigrants the United States attracts people from all over the world because we are a nation of laws. (Demint) For centuries immigration has been indispensable to the health of our nation, as it will be for our nation’s future success. (Demint) Although this is true, immigrants should still come to our nation lawfully and not burden our nations loyal and already overburdened taxpayers more with fiscal costs. (Demint) Foreign born people residing in the United States at the time of a population survey who were not U.S. citizens at birth in 2012 were reported to be 4.2% born in Africa, 29.2% born in Asia, 11.8% born in Europe, 52.2% born in Latin America including South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, 2.0% born in Northern America including Canada, Bermuda, Greenland, St. Pierre, and Miquelon. (Migration) The top three countries from which illegal immigrants were reported to have been originally born in are Mexico, India, and China. (Migration) With illegal immigration becoming more common by the years you can only imagine how much those numbers have increased. Having illegal immigrants in the U.S. and how to deal with the productive and government fee-conflicting immigrants can cause much controversy on whether they hurt or help our economy. Pardoning the offense against our government to those who break the law and putting them on a path to become citizens of our law-based nation would be unfair; also it would just impose more unacceptable behavior and major...
The lack of enforcement of immigration policies will cause the greatest impact on America’s economy. One of the most controversial topics is how immigrants affect jobs and wages. Many argue that immigrants help the economy by working for the people that will not, but in reality they are taking Americans jobs and legal immigrants that have earned their rights. The main issue is wages: illegal immigrants are desperate for jobs and will do anything. Businessmen will take advantage of this and pay them significantly lower wages. Cheap labor negatively affects other workers. Studies show that immigrants push down wages and may cause other workers to leave a certain industry.
However, illegal immigrants actually provide the workforce with a necessary pool of unskilled labor. Many of the jobs that these workers are taking are not in competition with citizens in America, where college degrees have become a societal norm. These unskilled laborers help to increase production in the country at relatively low wages that are beneficial to businesses. In addition, illegal immigration actually creates jobs in the United States. Consider that there are millions of undocumented children currently living in the U.S, and that they are all given the right to education in public schools. These children increase the demand for additional teachers, staff members, administrators, counselors, etc. in the education department. Higher student enrollment stimulates economic activity, through the purchasing of school supplies and educational materials. This example is not case-specific: larger populations demand workers that can adequately provide for them, and this is true in many different aspects of life. Immigrants provide revenue to many different American businesses through purchases, and illegal immigrants also pay income taxes through Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers or false Social Security Numbers. “As a result, undocumented immigrants contribute over $7 billion annually to Social Security and over $1.5 billion to Medicare,” (NCLR,
There are 11.8 million illegal immigrants in the united states. An immigrant is An Immigrant is a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence. In the united states labor force about 5.1% is made up by illegal immigrants (5 facts of immigrants in the U.S). Part of this percent is because
Every American has set high goals for themselves, leaving lower paying jobs available. Immigrants are just trying to survive, and are willing to take any job to accomplish just that. Americans have become spoiled, they get everything handed to them, they take things for granted, they forget about the ones that provide for them. Theodore Roosevelt once said “in the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person 's becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn 't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” Immigrants are normally shadowed by Americans, they do not have enough recognition for the jobs they do, they only get attention for the negative things they do. Just like Americans, Illegals have a mix of good and bad people, which should not affect the views on them as a whole. Illegal immigrants granted
Many people that do not believe that immigration helps the economy feel that way because they feel like immigrants workers take the native born workers jobs. Since immigrants are willing to work for lower wages than native born workers they feel that they will take more of their jobs or make their wages lower (Ezell, 2013). This is not true...