Immigrant Single Mothers

A common misconception is that legalizing illegal immigrants would just result in “criminals” running around the streets causing disturbances. Who is ignored is the benefit of a very specific population of Americans, the sons and daughters of illegal immigrants. American children are harmed every time one or both of their parents is deported as a result of the lack of an immigration reform. In the article, “Children of Illegal Immigrants Struggle When Parents Are Deported” Valbrun states that “the government deported more than 46,000 parents of children with U.S. citizenship in the first half of 2011, according to the ARC report.” In these conditions, jailed parents cannot fight for their children’s custody and at times lose it to the government who then puts the children out for adoption or in foster care when they already have loving parents. Properly legalizing immigrants would improve the lives of many American children and improve the American social aspects with more

For these families to now get additional support, from the government or another outlet, they now need to go further distances since those help centers are no longer as easily accessible as they were in their previous living arrangement. In addition to that, the only jobs they are now able to find are a lot farther away as well, maybe upwards to an hour and a half of driving. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it wasn’t for the fact of the minimum wage being too low for it to be worthwhile for these people. Some families, like the one in the article, sell what they can, such as ice pops, to get by, as they make more money doing that then they would at a minimum wage job that’s too far

The effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill helped declined caseloads on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. Although, the welfare reform was documented for making several positive changes such as reducing poverty rates, lowering the out of-wedlock childbearing, and formulated a better family structure, it is undeniable that poverty remained high among single mothers and their children. The reality of the matter was that most welfare recipients experienced serious barriers to maintain a stable employment due to their lack of skills, not having anyone available to take care of their young children when they leave for work as well as not gaining long-time employment with decent pay to help foster the family. As a result, most poor women and children were faced with the instability of economic and social future as welfare eligibility exhausted their efforts of supporting their families.

While living illegally in the U.S., their children that are born here are considered citizens and are eligible for social economic programs. According to a report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, “Many immigrant families get welfare through the eligibility of their U.S. citizen children. It is also important to realize that even when immigrants are ineligible for federal welfare programs, the burden of their support is simply shifted over to state and local welfare agencies.”(1-2). Trying to solve such a widespread problem has been a major goal of the U.S. congress since before the welfare reform bill of 1996. In his column, Ron Paul says, “Amnesty for illegal immigrants is not the answer. Millions of people who broke the law by entering, staying, and working in our country illegally should not be rewarded with a visa. Why should lawbreakers obtain a free pass, while those seeking to immigrate legally face years of paperwork and long waits for a visa?”(1).

In the world today, “Ten to thirteen million illegal immigrants live in America” (Watkins). According to the recent study, “The Percentage of immigrants living in the U.S.A. is almost fourteen percent”(Wooldridge). This problem is an issue to the U.S. and will be an issue to all of the nations including europe, asia, etcetera. if it is not fixed. Reason is that the immigrants get more government help or welfare some may call it, than the registered citizens of America. Studies show that 51 percent of homes led by immigrants are getting some kind of government help (Gomez). When there is help able to use then it should be used by the citizens of that country. All immigration needs to be controlled so anything tragic won 't happen anymore.

The truth is that many of these illegal immigrants would not come here to the United States, where they would have to face many uncertain challenges if they could do it legally. Some of these people just don’t have a choice, do to their current situations. Some of the factors that contribute to the challenges of these immigrants are poverty and not having an education to further their self’s and their children in their country of origin, which makes it hard to stay in a place where hope has been lost. The people who are here now illegally are some of the hardest working people around, their only crime committed are being poor, uneducated, and entering the land of hope. These people are forced to stay in the shadows where they are not seen, heard, or respected by society and the government. Despite of having to live in the shadows of other, most have come to make the U.S. part of their new home and have managed to raise their children despite of all the obstacles that await them in their path to one day becoming American citizens. The progress for these people is slow, hard, and controversial. Illegal immigrants with natural born citizen children are affected in many ways by the laws and the social pressure here in the United

Single mothers are struggling with only one job to make enough for a living for herself and her child. Single mothers are working very hard for very low pay. Mothers that are living paycheck to paycheck and are pushing their budget to the max eventually have to start applying for government assistance (Alexa). “Passing the Raise the Wage Act would especially help women, particularly women of color. Women are the majority (56 percent) of workers who would benefit from increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020”(Cooper, Gallagher,Vogtman). Single Women have to create strategies to make ends meet on low wages. They have to deal with all sorts of issues. (Chonce)

"We have a new division in America: those who pay a double fare, and those who forever ride free" ("Opposing Viewpoints 1"). Taxpayers are stripped of their hard earnings, only to have it put into programs that 'help' struggling families back onto their feet. Taxpayers are the ones who support these programs, and they don't get any credit for this. The federal government believes that government programs are here to act as a safety net for struggling families. But are they really? Taking money from taxpayers and using it to benefit not themselves, but others isn't a safety net. Government funded programs are not beneficial to the United States due to participants relying too much on the state and fraud in these programs.

The United States Census Bureau reported in a recent news release that one in five children receive food stamps. The report continues to notate statistics that this is a dramatic increase from the one in eight children that received benefits prior to the recession as of 2007, and that the number of children living in single parent households has tripled from the information gathered in 1940. (1) These parents struggle on a daily basis to provide for their children in a manner that is barely comfortable by middle class standards. Aside from the challenge of providing basic nutrition, these parents are challenged with furnishing their families with a roof over their heads, basic utilities, a safe child care experience, and sufficient clothing to wear to school. These parents already have to sift through hand me downs from relatives and community organizations for clothing with minimal stains and shoes without holes in them. When their utilities are about to be shut off, they sometimes wait in lines for hours for a small grant to help keep the lights on and the house warm. They have to bow their heads in shame when asking for the help of their churches and local community. They do everything in their power to provide a sense of normalcy to their children’s lives. Their children are already left out of school and extracurricular activities because they cannot afford the costs and are often working during the times that these activities are taking place. When an occasional treat

The number of legal and illegal immigrants had gone very high from 9.6 million in 1970 to over 30million today. There are three reasons why immigrants come to America, they're political refugees, the second reason is, they're highly skilled, and they're actively sought by the United States, and the third reason is they're highly unskilled. Most of the time immigrants come to other countries to be safe from the war in their country or for better opportunities. I am a legal immigrant that my country because of the terrible war that was going on there and I moved to America to be safe. According to nouveau poor documentary in 2001, more than 5 million immigrants, or more than one in six, were living in poverty. This represents a continuous increase over the last 20 years and is likely to continue. In contrast, only one in eight native-born Americans lives in poverty. And this figure has hardly changed in 20 years. Recent immigrants earn about 1/3 less than natives. According to one of the immigrant in this documentary “The mostly hours that I work is 58 hours. And then they pay me only $350. They pay me $6.50 an hour plus the overtime. But I don't think it's enough money to be the cooker, being in the smoke and the heat. I think its hard work for the money that I get”. Most of the time immigrants have very nice

As a single mother working in the conditions outlined by the author, I would propose changing the current structure of the labor work force in terms of creating a basic framework to uplifting a person’s economic status with the tools of the government, local communities, etc. While perhaps raising the minimum wage may increase an individual’s economic situation, it wouldn’t necessary solve the problem. In order to address this wage inequality issue, we must first understand why it’s very difficult for single mothers to uplift her family to a better economic situation. Lack of higher education is a growing problem in the United States, especially for those who are in the low socioeconomic class. Investing in education is a key initiative that

In 2009, out of all immigrant households, legal and illegal, with children (under 18) 57 percent used at least one welfare program, compared native households with children that came in about 39 percent. Fifty-two percent of households with children headed by legal immigrants were estimated to used at least one welfare program in 2009, compared to 71 percent for illegal immigrant households with children. Illegal immigrants generally receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born children. Due to low education levels more than half of the working immigrant households with children still accessed the welfare system during 2009 (Camarota). Cutting down on the amount of immigrants into the country can help to increase benefits for American citizens. This includes but is not limited to: food assistance, Medicaid, cash assistance, and public and subsidized housing.

immigrants are getting free benefit which our government is preferring immigrants over American. According to the article, “Tearing Up the Country, John O’Sullivan say, “those who oppose them claim they will displace low-paid American and depress wages”. I am firmly in the latter camp. They think if we allow this to happen in our country, it will only encourage more illegal immigrants to come here. The author O’Sullivan argues that he and so many other people are against immigration and legalization of illegal immigrants because they feel that this will create a huge gap among our citizens and immigrants. He discusses about immigration “tearing the fabric of the community. America had high unemployment rates, job loss, and poverty before an

Edin and Lein wanted to discover the surviving strategies of single mothers who are on welfare or work on a low-waged job. They argue “neither welfare nor low wage work gives single mothers enough income to meet their families’ expenses” (253). To find out the set of survival strategies of single mothers to make ends meet Edin and Lein interviewed 379 low income single mothers. They chose their interviewees from different cities, different aged group, and different ethnic background. Most mothers who are on welfare wanted to find a job and be out of the welfare but the primary problem that single mothers face was that “family economics”. With the minimum wage income it was impossible for the single mothers to bring the ends meet. Neither working nor being on welfare was enough to survive therefore mothers who are on welfare supported their budget by generating substantial supplementary income. Edin and Lein states that “welfare recipients generated extra income by working at side jobs, obtaining cash from network members, community groups and local charities”. They also get cash help from the family members, child’s fathers, and from a boyfriend. Because they were afraid to lose welfare benefits they did not tell anyone about the extra income they have. To survive they needed both the welfare benefits and the extra income. It was very difficult to establish a trust with the interviewees in the beginning because they were afraid if they talk about it they might lose the

Opponents to the legalization of undocumented immigrants argue that immigrants should be kick out of the country because they are taking jobs that can be filled by American citizens, and that they drain the US economy. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform Website, Americans citizens claim that undocumented workers take jobs away from