Immigration

Throughout its history, the United States has secured its position as a haven for immigrants from all corners of the world. For many centuries, millions of immigrants have inhabited to the nation’s shores, to take advantage of the greater economic opportunities and the freedoms that America enjoys as a free, democratic society. Debates in the public and academic domain have suggested that illegal immigrants contribute both positively and negatively to the United States, forcing legislators to grapple with finding best mechanisms to address the problem. Illegal immigration also poses serious questions on the country’s economy, and how to address the growing demand for low-cost labor while at the same time providing adequate jobs and economic opportunities for the American citizens. The nature and extent of illegal immigration in the United States make it a highly sophisticated issue, which continue to attract attention from academicians, policymakers and the public (Medrano, 2012). This paper will try to analyze whether immigration is beneficial or non-beneficial to the US economy.

An Overview of Illegal Immigration

Although recent evidence has suggested a decrease in illegal immigrants living in the United States, the number of undocumented individuals in the country is estimated at least 12 million people. Migration, whether documented or otherwise, is propelled by both the push and pulls factors within and outside the given societies. Studies have shown that political factors, poverty, crime, violence, and corruption push migrants from their home countries and the promise of economic opportunities where employers are in search for low-wage laborers pull their migrants into developed nations such as the United States (Orrenius & ...

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...bined. In other words, revenue collection from undocumented are said to be greater than the total expense of providing fundamental services to undocumented immigrants, who do not qualify for government-led initiatives (Orrenius & Zavodny, 2012). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated that unauthorized immigrants contribute over $15 billion to Medicare annually and more than $7 billion to social security. There are also other revenues collected from the undocumented immigrants to state and local governments through employment, taxes, and purchases. Therefore, in a way, illegal immigrants are far much beneficial to the US economy putting into considerations their overall input and the United States government output. However, the federal government should continue establishing policies to curb illegal immigrants as too much of it would surpass the benefits in the end.