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America Needs More Immigrants Essay

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America Needs More Immigrants

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 …show more content…

Those polled seem to be at least a little open-minded in their view of the quality of new immigrants. However, in order to overcome their distrust of foreigners, Americans must abandon their suspicions and recognize, as Simon has, that our lives are enhanced by immigrants creating, not taking, U.S. jobs.

Another widely held belief among Americans against immigration is that foreigners "strain social service budgets." According to the same poll, sixty-two percent of non-blacks and fifty-nine percent of blacks agree "immigrants use more than their fair share of government services, such as welfare, medical care, and food stamps." This belief has its roots in the nineteenth- century, when "one of the first immigration laws was designed to exclude the entry of people likely to become a 'public Charge'," according to the CQ Researcher . These beliefs are misguided and more than likely attributable to illegal immigration, which is not an issue on this topic. In actuality, immigrants are young and healthy when they arrive, and therefore, "do not receive expensive Social Security and other aid to the aged," according to Simon. In fact, Americans should be thankful for immigrants as they "contribute more to the public

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