Immigration Today Essay
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Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, from around the world, come to the United States. These immigrants come because they want a chance at a better life; others are refugees, escaping persecution and civil wars in their home country. Many people believe the United States is the best place to go. There is more freedom, protection, and benefits, which seems like a good deal to immigrants. But the large number of immigration is affecting the current citizens of the United States. Taxpayers are forced to pay for the welfare and schooling for many of these immigrants, some who are illegal aliens. Some citizens believe that immigration can be hazardous to the environment. Others blame crime, poverty, and overpopulation on immigration. About sixty-eight million immigrants have been added to the United States since 1970, and it is estimated that 130 million people will be added over the next fifty years. The government has tried somewhat to restrict immigration but the laws are still too lenient. Nearly every other advanced country in the world is moving quickly towards stabilized population or has already achieved it. The United States is moving towards it very slowly. This country would have to reduce immigration down to 255,000 a year to do this (Beck 1). If nothing is done to stabilize the immigration to this country, what will become of population in the next decade? The population will continue to grow even faster - not due to births, but to massive immigration to this country. Immigration can become a serious problem to this country if the government does not produce stricter laws.
The government must restrict immigration laws because of overpopulation of the United States. Immigration has been affecting America’s population for over two hundred years now. Back in the 1800’s, immigration was encouraged so that the New World could become prosperous. Today, some citizens have been worrying about how many more immigrants the United States can take in, while others do not really care because employers would rather pay lower wages to new immigrants or immigration does not seem to be affecting them in any way. It is impossible to stop all immigrants from coming to the United States, but the government can restrict the immigration laws to a certain extent (Kalla 2). Granting United States citizenship to children of illegal aliens is one problem that needs to be solved. Many pregnant illegal immigrant women wait to cross into the United States when they are ready to deliver their child (Roleff). They want to gain citizenship to their child so that the mother also will gain the right to immigrate to this country.
Chain migration is another concern for immigration laws. This is when married sons or daughters, or married sisters or brothers’ permits the spouses’ extended families to immigrate to the country. So, for example, a woman from the United States marries an immigrant, the immigrants’ relatives are allowed to immigrate to this country also. This should not be allowed to take place. Each and every individual immigrant should be required to find his or her own way into the United States. An illegal immigrant mother should not automatically gain rights once her child is born on United States soil as a United States citizen. This should be considered a fraud against the United States government. The Immigration Law of 1996 helped move toward this goal. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act authorized funding to increase the number of border patrol agents (Cozic). It also increased penalties for those who smuggle illegal aliens into the country and those who use fraudulent documentation. Although this has been done, illegal aliens are still finding their way across borders to a find better job and life. There is still awhile to go until the United States reaches a stabilized population
Over one million immigrants come to the United States annually. To add to this, immigrants have shown to have a higher birthrate than native-born Americans do. One-third of annual population growth of the United States now is from immigration. Twenty to twenty-five percent are illegal aliens or about 200,000 (Andryszewski 87). Illegal aliens cause a strain on welfare and health care facilities, not to mention more unwanted population. For example, in California, taxpayers were paying three billion dollars a year to benefit illegal aliens with education, healthcare, and other benefits. Finally, in 1994, California voters approved Proposition 187, which aimed to deny public benefits to illegal immigrants (Huffington 63). Illegal immigration is causing problems to United States citizens. These citizens are forced to pay billions of taxes on people who shouldn’t even be here in the first place. Even legal immigrants, who are of large numbers, are also costing a lot for other citizens so that more schools, stores, and other facilities can be built for these new immigrants. The population is getting out of hand due to excessive immigration and the government needs to do something about it.
Refugees are also becoming serious a problem to the population of the United States. Refugees come to the United States to escape religious, political, and racial persecutions. Another reason is because of wars on in their home country, bringing many of them here to the United States. In 1995, the United Nations recommended that all countries accept a combined total of less than 32,000 refugees. That same year, the United States alone admitted more than 110,000 immigrants as refugees. Some refugees are driven out of their home country due to economic hardships. In the very poor regions of the world, population growth, poverty, and lack of resources often cause these people to flee their home in pursuit of a better life (Squyres). The poor in underdeveloped countries choose to have many children since they are a commodity, providing much-needed labor. Due to these large families who appear to be necessary for survival, it soon leads to lack of resources and more poverty to the region (Squyres). This increases the need for better survival for families and so then these families continue to have more children to help out with providing for the family. In the end, these people are forced to become migrants because their homes can no longer support them. Many of these migrants find themselves immigrating to the United States for hope for a better life. This can produce even more poverty in this country, which can turn out in the end to become a very large problem. Refugees may not be a big problem now, but sooner or later this tolerance by the United States government could backfire in the future. Soon refugees from around the world will begin to think that the United States is the place to go and the already large population of the country will grow even faster and larger than ever. The cost of settling these refugees is very costly also. According to Roger Winter, a refugee rights advocate working for the United States Committee for Refugees, estimated that the cost of settling a refugee in the United States would cover expenses helping 500 refugees abroad (Roleff).
One of the reasons there is so much immigrant population in this country is because of the economy. In the past, immigration was helpful to the economy when people encouraged it so that the United States could become prosperous. Economic needs always forced Americans to seek immigrants for laborers and settlers. Today, it is a different story. Many people are afraid of losing their jobs because of immigration. “Immigration is currently flooding the labor market, primarily in the low-skill, low-wage sectors, and driving down wages and working conditions for many Americans…Because our immigration policies…[do] not take economic conditions into account, we continue to import new workers even when many Americans are losing their jobs.” Reform (Cox 55). Lower-skilled workers, according to studies, are especially harmed by immigration. For example, if an immigrant comes to the United State looking for a better job and they are more educated, who is most likely going to get the job? The higher skilled immigrant of course, especially if the person is willing to work for less pay. Today’s employers are looking for better educated people to work for them and sometimes an immigrant will have what it takes, while the native-born lower skilled worker doesn’t (Cox 60). Immigration is commonly accused of taking jobs away from native-born Americans. They accept lower wages which keeps everyone else’s wages low too (Andryszewski 51). Immigrants do benefit Americans by taking jobs current citizens don’t want, especially those low-paying fields like childcare, housekeeping, and agriculture (51). But many people still worry about the economy. Between 1985 and 1990, ten’s of thousands of low income native-born Americans migrated out of states like New York, Texas, and California where huge numbers of immigrants were moving in (Andryszewski 60). The immigrants were taking away economic opportunity for low income Americans who were forced to move somewhere else that they could make a better living. Sadly, there is not much there can be done to keep this from happening unless there is less immigration.
In 1993, when unemployment was very high, polls showed that two-thirds of Americans wanted immigration reduced and more than one-half thought that government service to immigrants cost taxpayers too much (Andryszewski 51). Immigration currently harms “middle-class taxpayers in high-immigration states who subsidize [fund] the average immigrant by $1,500 to $4,000 each” (Beck 7). This is an astonishing amount for these taxpayers. They should not have to pay so much in taxes for immigration. The government needs to find a better way to fund these new immigrants, or they can just make it easier by saying “no” to more immigration. It is affecting many people from looking at these statistics. The polls even say there needs to be less immigration but it does not seem as though the government is doing anything about it. The people are afraid that immigration will bring the economy down, taking away their jobs and using their tax money to pay for immigration services.
Economic migrants, people who leave home for a more prosperous life, can become a problem to the current people of the United States - not to mention the illegal immigrants. They are also effecting the economy. “Illegal immigration has stripped America of their jobs and the country of its respect for law” (Barrett). These illegal aliens come to the United States, thinking that they will have a better life. They cross borders illegally and go search for a job. If they are qualified for it, they will get the job. This hurts other United States citizens though. This keeps them from having this job because an illegal immigrant will work for less pay. This is not fair to citizens because the only people that benefit...
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