Reflection About Immigration

Illegal immigrants in the United States (US) have long been a topic of debate for policymakers and the public. The rationale about them is that they do not pay taxes; they add to the costs of taxpayers and use up funds in resources meant for assisting citizens and legal immigrants (the legal citizens). Therefore, they are perceived as a threat to the US economy. The true impacts of illegal immigrants on the US economy are discussed by debating over the economic benefits as well as economic costs of these immigrants. The negative impacts, discussed first, presented the decreases in low skilled jobs’ wage rates for legal immigrants and citizens instigated by illegal immigrants, the social services such as educations and healthcare that they

“Mom, will I ever be treated as a regular person? When will I be like the others without people look at me in a strange way and make fun of me, when mom? When?” Those were the questions I did to my mom almost every day after getting home from school. Fourteen years ago that my parents brought me to this country offering a better life with better opportunities than where I was born. I was seven years old when came to the United States, but I still remember the happiness I felt when I first step in this country. Throughout the years, I have realize that not everything is easy and simple as I imagined. My parents worked in the fields because of the lack of a social security and not knowing how to speak English. Many Americans do not know how hard it is the life of an immigrant, they should have a consideration for us and not just blame us for the deviance of the United States.

Some argue that immigrants will take our jobs after the allowance of legalization and attendance of postsecondary education. It is a true fact that those who become legal in the labor market will demand better treatment, respect, increased wages, and employee benefits. Those, who already have a degree, and clean houses for living due to their status, will apply for jobs equal to their education. Although the fact that they will take our job is true to some degree, it is a rhetoric marketed exaggerator, installed to create fear, and lead to an opposition to immigration reform. The legalization will affect most companies that benefit from a mistreatment of undocumented immigrants and will affect businesses that profit from underpaying their hired laborers, documented or undocumented. According to Aviva Chomsky, “Governments have made sure that there are people without rights to fulfill business’s need for cheap workers and high profits” (126). Businesses tend to oppose restriction on immigration today because inequality maintains a population of poor people who lack access to resources, and who may have little alternative but to accept jobs under the worst of conditions (15). “The answer to the low-wage problem is not to restrict the rights of people at the bottom even more (through deportations, criminalization, etc.) but to challenge the accord between business and government that promote the low-wage, high-profit model” (27). Immigrants have always flooded America, to work as a cheap labor, work under strenuous conditions, send remittance to their home countries, and return home. The fact that people believed immigrants come to steal the American wealth is altered by the globalization of the economy, and it hurts to have a vulnerable nation labor force to compete with other countries. According to Chomsky, “As of 2005, Social Security was receiving about $7 billion a year through false social security numbers provided by illegal immigrant workers” (38). This fact is based on a low-income/low immigrant wage. Therefore, allowing immigrants to access higher education and better-paid jobs will result in higher income taxes, higher real estate and consumer’s taxes, community involvement and volunteering. If the

The first day in the United States is one of the best day and most thrilling days in my life. My father and my older sister move to Malaysia to get a job and support our family due to financial difficulty and lack of job opportunity in Burma. After a few years, my father and my sister were able to enter as immigrant and they were sent to the United States as immigrants through United Nation. After being apart with my father and my sister for more than a decade, my parents decide to move completely to America where more opportunities are available for a brighter future. My family faces many obstacles during the process of migrating to America. Despite all the struggle that are on our way, my family finally arrives in the United States and face major changes in life.

Throughout the years there has been and increasing number of illegal immigrants in this country. Just recently Obama took executive action to shield illegal immigrants from deportation. A Texas Judge though blocked his executive action on immigration. Illegal immigration is a huge controversy here in the United States partly due to Americans thinking that illegal immigrates are taking jobs, causing lower wages, and the costs of education. In Immigration and the American Worker, George Borjas found that the presence of immigrant workers, whether they are legal or illegal, made the U.S economy about 11 percent larger each year. If overall the U.S economy is better off with illegal immigrant workers, then why is there a push for harsher immigration policies? The controversy is due to the fact that the impact of illegal immigration changes from state to state. I hypothesize that the problem is the distribution of illegal immigrants across the United States. I believe that the benefits outweigh the costs and that because of the distribution of illegal immigrants, the costs are only felt by a few. By granting amnesty to the undocumented workers we could increase the level of tax payers and better the lives of those who feel the costs of illegal immigrants the most. I will test this hypothesis out by looking at the impact illegal immigrant on the labor market, the cost of illegal immigration, cost of ant-immigrant policies, impact of legalization, and impact of amnesty.

Immigration has been an essential but disruptive aspect of the people and the political state of the United States; however, debates related to immigration and its benefits are intensified significantly. Opposing immigration keeps ranting on how government should exercise better law to control over the people entering into the States from the foreign land. One of the most buzzed argument is that American citizen is unemployed because immigrants stole their jobs and disrupted the economy (Hoban, 2017). Also, an appeal to National security and vulnerability after several terrorist attacks all over the world and also to the government to keep track and maintain the no. of immigrants to create a safer environment (Cafaro, 2009). However, the contrary to these arguments have often been proven right. The pattern of the immigration shows that the contribution of the immigrants has resulted in an economic boost that cannot be overlooked by the government.

Another fiscal problem immigration is the decreases in wages. When examining the issue,immigrants are more likely to willingly accept decrease wages which in turn allow businesses to favor immigrants. In a report “Immigration, Poverty, and Low Wage Earners, Mathew Graham, a second year PhD student in American Politics and Political Economy, who primarily focuses on immigration policy states that, “The reality is that immigrants and natives compete for the same jobs and native workers are increasingly at a disadvantage because employers have access to a steady supply of low-wage foreign workers.” Such labor disrupts the flow of other workers in certain industries displacing American workers and decreasing the average wages for the average work force. These industries include food preparation, building and ground maintenance, construction and other unskilled labor that requires little to no education. Illegal immigrants are the least educated “with nearly 75 percent having

There are not many people who know that there is war going on within America. A war, that is capable of impacting the future of America. Millions of “Dreamers” are fighting to be recognized as American citizens. In recent months and years, the debate on immigration reform has been heated and often uninformed. Every president mentions in his speech to take action on immigration reform. But unfortunately he ends up taking action against immigrants by deporting them. Is the country founded by immigrants has closed doors for the immigrants? People are fighting for the immigration reform. In order for the bright future of America we need to fix the present problems. A land of opportunity has taken many hits but the immigration reform made us think about our legal system. It is essential to understand that “immigration reform” is not a cup of tea. The question many are asking is that how can we accept millions of people into our labor force? We are already struggling from unemployment rate, which is peaking high. In this paper I will be primarily focusing on the role of immigrants on our economy, businesses and society, and how it impacts our society.

The U.S economy is constantly changing due to many factors, and immigration happens to be one of them. For so long, many people have had opposing viewpoints of how immigrants that are coming into the United States are affecting the economy. Some people believe that immigrants make up a big percentage of the United States’ economy meanwhile, others believe that they just take space away from public services such as schools, hospitals, and jails. Art Thompson and Arian Campo-Flores are both publishers who wrote about the controversy of immigration changing the economy. Publisher Arian Campo-Flores, in his article “Why Americans Think (Wrongly) That Illegal Immigrants Hurt the Economy” published in 2010 by The Daily Beast argues that illegal immigrants are not hurting the economy instead, they are helping it by providing cheap labor, replenishing the lost funds that retiring Americans will create and are contributing to properties and to taxes. In an opposing viewpoint, Art Thompson in his article, “Real Solutions for the Economy: Stop

The Immigration debate in America has become a household topic in 2016 given the controversies surrounding it. Immigration laws in the United States are set in place to help control how many can immigrate into the country every year. As expected with any controversial topic, there are proponents for the implementation of Immigration reform and those that strongly oppose it. Those in support of the reform cite more security for American citizens while those who oppose it focused on the decline of the American economy. In this essay, I will be discussing the reasoning of those who support immigration reform as well as the reasoning of others who oppose the proposed reform. Secondly, I will discuss the responses to this issue by President Donald

When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they

Throughout the history of independent United States, the country has attracted immigrants from different parts of the world. Illegal immigrants form the larger proportion of the immigrants into the United States. Policy analysts, government officials, as well as scholars have sought to ascertain the political, social, and economic impacts of the illegal immigrants (Hanson 11). Particularly, there has been raging debate regarding the economic impact of illegal immigration to the United States of America. It has become a matter of debate and study as it relates considerably to the nation’s politics and economy. At the centre of this debate is the question of whether illegal immigrants are good or bad to the economy of the United States (Dudley 18).

Immigration is one hot topic in today’s conversation and society. Many think that immigrants coming to America are taking many jobs away from who need them. Some also think that there are jobs being taken away are not ones that Americans would not perform due to the horrible working conditions, low pay, and lack of important medical coverage. The immigration issue has come to a point where the United States must make a decision to spend a lot of money to curtail the amount of immigrants coming here.

The Article Immigration Policy: Should the U.S. government take stricter measures to limit illegal immigration (February 9, 2017), focuses on whether the U.S. should adopt stricter measures for illegal immigration. Supporters believe that illegal immigrants pose a threat to national security. Undocumented immigrants are not in the system, so their criminal records are inaccessible. Additionally, supporters believe that immigrants take the jobs of Americans. Companies tend to give immigrants jobs because they will work for cheap wages. However, the opponents of the law believe stricter measures for illegal immigrants shouldn’t be done because most of the country's technological breakthroughs are due to immigrants. Opponents believe that immigrants help the economy because they take the jobs that not many workers take, such as farming or physical work. Immigration policy argument will continue until there is common ground established between everyone whether to there should be stricter measures or another way for them to become documented.

The world is becoming an increasingly interconnected place and this trend is continuing. As a result, countries are facing new problems that are requiring policy changes in many highly contentious fields. Of major concern are the immigration and citizenship policies of many western nations that are receiving a majority of the immigrants. This is a highly salient issue because people are concerned about the effect immigrant populations will have on voting trends and the jobs that they could take from citizens. Rarely discussed, though of vital importance, is the immense impact that immigrants have on the economy, as they take low paying jobs that the average citizen would scoff at. If these immigrants are willing to take such low paying