One of the biggest debates among the American people as well as political leaders is the topic of immigration. The debate is about whether immigrants coming to America for a better life help or hurt the United States economy, and if these immigrants are taking jobs away from native residents and creating a job shortage. Other questions asked about immigration are should immigration in the United States be controlled and what is or should be done to help stop illegal immigrants. Jeanne Batalova writes in her article “Immigration Reform in the United States: Raising Key Questions” that “the current number of immigrants, 38 million, is at a historical high (73).” According to Ethan Lewis’s chart found in his article “The Impact of Immigration on American Workers and Businesses”, immigration in America has been on the steady increase since 1950 (50). Every American has his or her own opinion, but these biases do not answer the question about if immigration is a good or bad thing. Many Americans are blind to the immigration situation because they have not done research on the topic as I have. I have come to support immigration in the United States after reading and analyzing many scholarly articles specifically about immigration in America. I found that documented immigrants are a big part of our economy and have not affected the American job market. Further studies have shown that the government has been trying to control illegal immigrants coming into the United States only to find that nothing has worked. Without immigration our economic problems would be even worse.
Before going into analysis about illegal immigrants and how immigrants affect the economy, we need an understanding of the causes of migration to America. ...
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...should help to assimilate the immigrants to help our production and boost our economy. Documented immigrants play a major role in the economy today, and are projected to be even more important to the United States economy in the future. Results show that job loss is not related to immigration, so immigrants cannot be blamed for our job deficit in America today. Even with the problem on undocumented immigrants, the benefits of all the other immigrants out weight the problems caused by immigration. In the end, the policies of immigration need to be changed to help more immigrants to become assimilated into our society to help out our own cause, and not are preoccupied trying to keep everyone out. The supporting evidence shown throughout can be useful to help see the beneficial factors of immigration and why we should invite immigration into the United States.
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
History has proven that prosperity follows immigrants. Economist showed that the economic boom of the 1950s-60s was led by immigration, and the depression of the 1930s began after they enforced the Immigration Act of 1924. The Immigration Act of 1924 is a federal law in the United States that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to two percent of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States. Illegal immigrants usually work in low paying jobs that most Americans refuse to do themselves. According to (Stewart 10), whenever there was a shortage of farm workers, the INS border patrol pretended that they didn’t see the Mexican workers crossing the border. They contribute more money to the government than what they receive in benefits; therefore, they cannot be seen as social burden. According to (Szumski 14), the Orange County Task Force found that illegal immigrants pay $83 million taxes each year and they receive medical services costing only $2.7 million per year. So, they only receive few benefits and many immigrants are drained from hope of better jobs, not by benefit programs from the United States. The limitations of immigration policies are dramatic and far-reaching. Many Americans fear open border polices because of all the stereotypes about illegal immigrants. The motivation and positive aspects of illegal immigrants has become essential to this country. While illegal Immigrants work in fields, clean houses, wash dishes, and labor in sweatshops, millions of Americans would rather sit and ask for money or wait for welfare checks rather than search for a job. According to (Lee 8), approximately 700,000 immigrants are legally accepted to the United States each year. After this small limit is reached, all the others are turned away or cross
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.
In 2007, the White House issued this statement in hopes to influence a Congressional debate: “Immigration has a positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers” (Pear). This statement relates to the idea that immigrants actually enhance the productivity of American workers and increase their earnings in a significant amount, estimated at $37 billion a year (Pear). This is just one way in which immigrants support economic development in the United States. Since the U.S. is an i...
The U.S. is slammed by growing numbers in population. It seems that many do not think of the long term effects of this increase. This is one of the most significant problems Americans face today, yet no one talks about the problem, when it comes to the debate over immigration. “The current world population is over 6 billion and increases at a rate of 76,570,430 people every year. Since 1950, U.S. population has nearly doubled - growing from 151 million to over 294 million today. If present trends continue, our population will exceed 400 million by the year 2050. Immigration contributes over one million people to the U.S. population annually. The total foreign-born population in the U.S. is now 31.1 million, a record 57 percent increase since 1990. About 8 million of those are here illegally--a 4.5 million increase since 1990. Almost one-third of all immigration during the 1990s was illegal. An NPG demographic analysis of age distribution, fertility, and mortality data shows that if there had been no immigration to the U.S. since 1990, the population in 2000 would have been 262 million–19 million less than the 281 million counted. Thus, post-1990 immigrants and their children accounted for 61 percent of population growth during the last decade.” (Negative Population Growth. 2004. http://www.npg.org/index.html).
First, immigrants come to the U.S. to work and bring valuable skills which help grow the economy despite the negative views surrounding their part in the U.S. economy. Since the 2008-2009 recession the view on immigration and its effects on the economy has been more negative than positive (Peri, 2012). A study done by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government found that about 50 percent of American adults believe that immigrants burden the country because they, “take jobs, housing, and healthcare”, while the other 50 percent believe that, “immigrants strengthen the country due to their hard work and talents” (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Over the past decade, “over half of the increase in the U.S. labor force,… was the result of immigration-l...
America is known famously throughout the world with the nickname 'The melting pot.' The reason behind this is that America is extremely diverse and has many different people. Immigrants give America the chance to know the culture of many countries. They bring in their culture, religion, economic benefits, and ideology to America. I believe that the United States should allow legal immigrants from all over the world because they bring many benefits to it. Immigrants are a positive influence on United States of America.
Illegal immigrants in the United States (US) have long been a topic of debate for policymakers and the public. The rationale about them is that they do not pay taxes; they add to the costs of taxpayers and use up funds in resources meant for assisting citizens and legal immigrants (the legal citizens). Therefore, they are perceived as a threat to the US economy. The true impacts of illegal immigrants on the US economy are discussed by debating over the economic benefits as well as economic costs of these immigrants. The negative impacts, discussed first, presented the decreases in low skilled jobs’ wage rates for legal immigrants and citizens instigated by illegal immigrants, the social services such as educations and healthcare that they utilize and add to taxpayers. Then contrary to the negative impacts, the positive impacts reveal benefits of low production costs, increases in the local market sales, undocumented tax generation, impact on growth and employment brought forth by illegal immigrants. These impacts, both negative and positive, are independently analyzed and weighed against each other. The discussion does show a slight net positive impact on the US economy in contrast to the normal belief about illegal immigrants.
One of the most controversial issues debated today is immigration. This issue raises many questions on the pros and cons of allowing so many immigrants to enter this country. The majority of people coming to live in America are from third world countries. The United States has been known as the nation of immigrants since the 1960s. Like always there are people who support immigration while others are against it. As immigration continues to grow the number of people who oppose it does as well. The growth of illegal immigration has increased to 5 million, despite many policies establish to prevent it. One major debate about immigration is the impact it has on the economy and whether the growing number of immigrants is a major threat to this country.
The great immigration processes that took place created huge population surges in U.S. The higher population placed a strain on the infrastructure as well as services within the host country. When the immigrants moved to the U.S, they were faced with numerous unknowns comprising of finding employment besides housing and adjusting to new laws, new language, and cultural norms. It was a challenge to America to assimilate immigrants into the society besides providing the necessary support (Srivastava, pg. 87). Immigration led to the increase in the labor force in America. The impact of the immigrants towards the economy was great since they already expanded the supply of labor in the host
America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants" because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been a clamor by some politicians and citizens toward creating a predominantly closed-door policy on immigration, arguing that immigrants "threaten" American life by creating unemployment by taking jobs from American workers, using much-needed social services, and encroaching on the "American way of life." While these arguments may seem valid to many, they are almost overwhelmingly false, and more than likely confused with the subject of illegal immigration. In fact, immigrants actually enhance American life by creating, not taking jobs, bolster social service funds through tax payments, and bring valuable technical knowledge and skills to our country. If we are to continue to excel as a nation, the traditionalists who fear an encroachment of foreign-born Americans must learn to accept that we achieved our greatness as a result of being "a nation of immigrants."
In the book “Illegal, Life and Death in Arizona’s Immigration War Zone” by Terri Greene Sterling, one of the major social issues presented is immigration. Immigration is a prominent national issue, and the undocumented population is growing rapidly in our nation because of many reasons, one being that Mexicans can’t afford to live in Mexico because of lack of employment with good pay. They want to escape from poverty as oppression. The minute immigrants come to America they start contributing to the economy. Indeed, a recent study showed that in all their different roles in the U.S, immigrants make vital contributions to the economy. They create an increasingly significant proportion of the workforce (Arizaga, 2006). That is the
It is clear that illegal immigrants have an overall detrimental effect on the country. Undocumented immigrants flood industries with low amounts of required skill and communication and drive native workers from their jobs. More often than not, these native workers leave the work force. Econometric models used to measure the effect that immigration has on society typically overestimate the benefits produced by immigrants and underestimate the cost associated with them. In addition, undocumented workers use more government assistance than natives and pay less in taxes. Perhaps the largest factor concerning the impact that illegal immigrants has on America is the colossal amount of crime that they bring into the country. Moreover, illegal
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) 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.
Economically, immigrants greatly boost an economy by providing new job outlets, more money to companies, and reducing the unemployment rate. A large influx of immigrants will help many companies because of supply and demand, more people equals more needs to be provided. With the average immigrant worker working at lower wages, immigrants reduce the amount of money a company loses when paying their employees. A writer at The Fiscal Times connects this idea by claiming, “Without the immigrant labor, prices consumers pay for hotels and restaurants would be substantially higher (Furchgott-Roth).” Other than keeping vacations and dinners cheaper, immigration has yielded great results in the field of education. With a majority of immigrants relocating with their family or having a family in the new country, it is highly likely for them to send their offspring to school so that they can have a good education. This bodes well for the high school and/or college they attend because the children increase the graduation rate, which is one of many factors people use to determine how good a school is. Once acquiring a higher education, many of them will decide to open up their own business or wander into the job market. The former option has yielded excellent results for the United States, with immigrants owning almost one in five of the small businesses in America (Bass). The latter keeps a