Immigration’s Empowering Impact

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Immigration is a complicated subject, including the problems experienced by immigrants who migrate to America such as the reasons behind immigrating to America, dramatic population increase in the U.S., the Dream Act legislation, and their psychological issues. Immigrating to the United States sparks many psychological effects such as emotional distress that people can experience by being separated from their families. Immigrants are people who migrate from other countries across national borders to experience a better life. The mechanism of how immigrants are permitted to permanently reside or temporarily stay in the United States is extremely complicated considering the problems immigrants experience when they have finally completed their journey to America. For example, many American people are against immigrants entering the United States, known as xenophobes. Xenophobes are people who are described as “lacking in compassion and decency that they care only about preserving their racially, ethnically and culturally constricted world” (Byrne, 2014). This group of people have a powerful, irrational fear of foreigners. Some people are xenophobic towards immigrants because they feel the increase in population will deteriorate the economy. Xenophobes have bashed the concept of foreigners entering the United States, stating that the Dream Act legislation will be a “backdoor grant of amnesty that would encourage more foreigners to sneak into the United States in hopes of being legalized eventually” (Davis, 2010). Immigrants are strongly psychologically impacted by xenophobic negativity and discrimination, which can impact their mental health. The growing population of immigrants struggle with an overwhelming amount of conflicts. Ove... ... middle of paper ... ...re finally in America. These problems include the fear of being deported or separated from their families, the psychological struggle of the shock of coming to a foreign country, and their future opportunities. Many immigrants “were hopeful about gaining legal status and felt that their lives would, once they were legal, dramatically change for the better” (Rodriguez, R., & DeWolfe, A., 1990). One day, an immigrant’s transition to America may become easier. In the future, ideally immigrants will hopefully have access to opportunities such as the youth being permitted to continue residing in the country as a result of the Dream Act to pursue education and careers. Also, immigrants could be provided with mental health care to overcome the stressful transition to a new country in the future, as the population of foreigners in America will steadily increase over time.

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