Immigrants in the United States

Immigrants in the United States, both legal and illegal, have faced antagonistic attitudes from the American population also called, ironically, “the nation of immigrants”. This hostile and unfair mindset results from misrepresentations of immigrants by newspapers as foreign-born people have been portrayed as the slumps of the American economy and society. Hence, the newspaper must show realistic images of immigrants, instead of falsely attributing an array of negative impacts to them. In order to achieve this, the press must concentrate on the mission of reporting and portraying realistic images of immigrants. To clarify this proposition, I will examine the existing inadequacy, or the misconceptions of immigrants in the States. This will be followed by exploring the vital role of the newspaper and press in conveying the negative image of the immigrants, and the resolution that could subdue the current problem.

Immigrants in the U.S., both legal and illegal, are claimed by the anti-immigrant groups to be a burden on the American economy and society. A significant amount of Americans believes that foreign-born people negatively impact the local economy by taking away jobs from natives (“10 harmful misconceptions” 4). However, in reality,immigrant entrepreneurs and professionals play a crucial role in job creation in America (Anderson, Stuart and Platzer 5). In fact, enterprises erected by immigrants are worth more than $500 billion and employ around 220,000 people (Anderson, Stuart and Platzer 6-7). Furthermore, on average, 7.1 percent of immigrant-owned companies and firms export, compared with 4.4 percent of non-immigrant firms (Fairlie 12). This indicates that immigrant-owned firms have higher rate of exportation, therefore t...

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Suro, Roberto. “Promoting Misconceptions: News Media Coverage of Immigration.”. Center for the Study of Immigration Integration. N. Pag. Web. December 2009.

United States. Department of Homeland Security. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2011. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, 2012.

United States. Government Accountability Office. Office of Policy and Planning, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service : Information on Certain Illegal Aliens Arrested in the United States. Washington, DC: Government Accountability Office, 7 April 2005. Web. 05 May. 2014.