Immagration

Immigration

Emma Larzarus once said "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door." [1] Whether immigration is a contribution to society or a drain on the government is up to the individual to decide. The question remains, Should Lady Liberty close her doors? Immigration has its advantages and disadvantages but the cons always seem to have a greater impact on society. There is a wide range of impacts that immigration has on society, including the drain on economy, the loss of jobs for the native-born, the overcrowding of areas that cannot be expanded, drugs, crimes, the transfer of new diseases and health care. Immigration was the foundation for creating America. For so many years immigration has been changing America. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout American history. Immigrations have caused controversy regarding race, ethnicity, religion, economic benefits, job growth, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, levels of criminality, political loyalties, moral values, and work habits. What America doesn't see is that immigration has diversified and has enriched America with it's new foods and traditions.

Natives argue that immigration has an effect on the economy. More then one third of all people that immigrated to the US have been men looking for jobs whether it has been legally or illegally. Displacement of citizens from employment by immigrants has always been one of the major fears about immigration. The argument from the native-born men is that the immigrants are competing directly with them for all the less educated labor jobs. The effect of immigrant competition on natives' wages also is an issue that arouses the natives. George Borjas, a Harvard University economist and expert on immigration economics, estimates that "between 1980 and 2000 immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by roughly four percent." [2] While the poor and less educated in the US sees their wages declining because of the influx of immigration, businesses benefit from the cheap supply of gardeners, house cleaners, factory workers, and day laborers. It offers cheaper labor to businesses because they don't have to pay minimum wages to the workers who are willing to work for a lower price, this gives the business an edge over their competitors. The argument that native born won't take the unskilled jobs that immigrants typically occupy is countered by economists who say that with fewer immigrants, wages for the tough jobs in farms and factories would rise and pay enough to attract the native born. If an illegal is willing to work for under the minimum wage then the employer will not pay more for the job to any other

employ. In fact might higher only illegal's and take-away jobs from legal residents who are willing to work.

While others say that immigration has created a drain on the governments budgets, because the government provides immigrants with welfare, education, criminal justice, and emergency medical care. Immigration pushes income higher up the ladder. The positives gain from reduced costs for the goods and services provided by immigrant labor far exceeds the negative costs. If the businesses can produce products and services at a low price keeping their overhead low, then we as a consumer will also pay a lower price. Most illegal's are skilled workers that help to run the economy.

Immigration provides culture diversity in the united states, bringing in immigrants gives the US a wide range of cultures, which can expand businesses to other fields of the world. Other countries economy is also being helped, the workers bring money to their families out side of the U.S. which in most cases the U.S. dollar has a higher value than their own. In contrary the illegal immigrants pay no tax, but they are consumers. The legal immigrants add to the economic demand in the form of product purchase and tax base such as sales tax, income tax and property tax on all levels of the government, local, state and national. If the illegal immigrants aren't paying any taxes then how can we as a country pay for public services. Immigrants send money out of our economy and are sending it to their families abroad, if money is taken out of our economy it causes a monetary problem.

What people don't see is that perhaps the US gains economically from having a bigger population. They no longer want to sit around and be ruled by the few, they are rushing their citizenship's and fighting for say in politics. The number of immigrants in the United States is larger than ever before in history, yet immigrants make up a very small percentage of the population. The impact of immigration adds perhaps 200 million people to the American population, but even without immigration there will still be significant population growth because we have created what is called "population momentum." [3] Thus we will have a good deal of it even without future immigration. Not all immigrants stay in the United States, nearly a third later returned to their homelands.

There are consequences that would seem to be unavoidable if the population continues to grow dramatically. There are many benefits from population growth, such as the increase in equity for owners of real estate and greater opportunities and choices it should create for businesses and consumers. If immigration and its population continues to grow as rapidly it means that the government would have to build millions of more housing units. This creates implications for worsening the problems of sprawl, congestion, and loss of open spaces. The poverty rate for immigrants and their U.S.-born children under 18 is 18.4 percent, 57 percent higher than the 11.7 percent for natives and their children. [4] Immigrants and their minor children account for almost one in four persons living in poverty. The low educational attainment of many immigrants resulting low wages are the primary reasons so many live in poverty, use welfare programs, or lack health insurance, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.

In the last few years, a good deal of attention has been focused on the dramatic increases in enrollment in school districts across the country. The Department of Education recently reported that the number of children in public schools has grown by nearly eight million in the

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