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Immigration and its effects on the economy
Negative effects of illegal immigration
Effects of illegal immigration essay
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In the upcoming presidential election, one of the most popular topics is that of illegal immigration. Leading Republican candidate Donald J. Trump has run a campaign heavily anti-illegal immigration. He proposes reform in American immigration, specifically from Mexico. Many politicians and political activists argue that undocumented immigrants take job-positions from American workers and cost federal, state, and local governments considerably large amounts of money per year in law enforcement, education, and healthcare services. U.S. citizens are passionate to restore their economy, and many have adopted a very xenophobic attitude towards immigration amidst the new presidential debates. In order to restore our economy, many people believe that …show more content…
illegal immigration must be stopped and that all undocumented immigrants should be deported. However, illegal immigration is actually more beneficial to the economy than the general public typically perceives it to be. One of the leading arguments against illegal immigration is the perception that undocumented workers steal jobs.
However, illegal immigrants actually provide the workforce with a necessary pool of unskilled labor. Many of the jobs that these workers are taking are not in competition with citizens in America, where college degrees have become a societal norm. These unskilled laborers help to increase production in the country at relatively low wages that are beneficial to businesses. In addition, illegal immigration actually creates jobs in the United States. Consider that there are millions of undocumented children currently living in the U.S, and that they are all given the right to education in public schools. These children increase the demand for additional teachers, staff members, administrators, counselors, etc. in the education department. Higher student enrollment stimulates economic activity, through the purchasing of school supplies and educational materials. This example is not case-specific: larger populations demand workers that can adequately provide for them, and this is true in many different aspects of life. Immigrants provide revenue to many different American businesses through purchases, and illegal immigrants also pay income taxes through Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers or false Social Security Numbers. “As a result, undocumented immigrants contribute over $7 billion annually to Social Security and over $1.5 billion to Medicare,” (NCLR, …show more content…
2008). A majority of illegals do not receive these benefits, however, due to the fact that false Social Security numbers cannot be linked to these individuals. The annual contributions are, therefore, provided to current and future retirees. Despite all of these benefits, there are absolutely some costs of illegal immigration.
Illegal immigration is a violation of federal law, and money is spent in law enforcement to apprehend these individuals. Educational services per child are an additional cost as well. Health insurance is not provided to undocumented immigrants, but health care services, such as hospitals, are. These three areas can be costly for government to provide but not in the magnitude that the media often portrays to the public. It is important to remember that immigration, legal and illegal, helps to stimulate the economy. Immigrants are not stealing jobs from skilled workers, they are providing their labor to our economy. In the meantime, they are creating more opportunities and employment positions for skilled workers, and they are funding our Social Security and Medicare services. From an economic standpoint, illegal immigration is not harmful. In some areas, it is costly, but I believe that the benefits outweigh the costs. Undocumented immigrants contribute a great deal to the U.S. economy. However, it is important to remember that this activity is illegal and should not be encouraged. There is much more that we can do to improve the current state of immigration in our country so that not only our economy flourishes, but also that workers from other countries can come to ours to benefit as
well.
The other aspect is that illegal immigrants have positive effects in the U.S economy by decreasing consumer cost. Most of the illegal immigrants came to the U.S to fill the secondary labor market; therefore products and services become cheaper because illegal immigrants work for lower wages, thus providing a kind of subsidy to American consumers. Nadadur Ramanujan in his article “Illegal Immigrants” states that, “Because illegal immigrants serves to allow businesses to minimize their cost of production in the secondary sector, it positively impacts income of all native workers by decreasing
Some viewpoints assert that if a person is in the United States illegally, he should have no rights and no benefits. Proponents justify this position by blaming illegal immigration for economic hardships, such as increasing health care costs, for the American people. This attitude is simply inaccurate. Many undocumented immigrants do contribute to the economies of the federal, state and local governments through taxes and can stimulate job growth. However, the cost of providing healthcare impacts federal, state, and local governments differently.
Illegal immigration has many diverse effects on the United States economy. Some people argue that the negative outweigh the positive, but there is no doubt that immigrants do carry a critical role.
In the U. S today, the approximated population of undocumented immigrants stands at averagely 11 million. Therefore, this has created a hot debate in Congress about the action to take over the undocumented immigrants. Those opposed to illegal immigrants suggest that, their stay in the United States effects U.S citizens on the job market negatively . In addition, illegal immigrants are viewed in certain quarters as takers in the sense that illegal immigrants benefit more from public resources than the american-born citizens of the U.S. However, the reality is that immigrants contribute positively to the U.S economy and pay significantly into the system compared to what they send back home.
The mass deportation of undocumented immigrants categorizes them as second class citizens. People assume they provide a burden to society, and many policy makers have taken steps in order to oust them. The first being IIRIRA. In reality undocumented people have every right to be here. The economic slump of their native countries is a consequence of US actions and policies, and undocumented workers provide a great economic benefit to the US. In “Border America: illegal but essential, experts say undocumented immigrants are a driving force in the economy despite a toll to public services and unskilled workers,” by David Streitfeld the benefits undocumented workers provide for the economy are outlined. Streitfeld writes that economist agree that undocumented workers contribute to consumer spending and instead of replacing workers actually create jobs. Undocumented workers have a negative stigma that they misuse resources and steal jobs from citizens, but they do the opposite. The influx of undocumented workers has stimulated the
Illegal immigration has helped in the nation’s economic growth by enabling businesses to prosper as the illegal immigrants have provided cheap labor and long hours of hard work. Businesses benefit from illegal immigration by saving a large amount of money since they are not providing insurance both medical and retirement plans for their illegal workers. This results in a lower production cost for the companies and lower prices of goods and services for everyone. Although illegal immigrants may not contribute directly to the economy of the nation in the aspect of paying taxes like income tax, they contribute to the economy in the form of sales taxes by purchasing the supplies they need in the same way a native citizens or legal immigrants do in order to survive and live comfortably.
Those who support immigrants being protected by the law believe that immigrants help the economy by creating lower wages which enables companies to make better profits. According to Becky Akers and Donald J. Boudreaux, immigrants “should be allowed to contribute to the United States economy in the Constitutional and legal precepts that guarantee all immigrants the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the United States” (22). If immigrants were not here in the United States, the jobs they do might not even get done by anyone else (Isidore 103). Immigrants fill up the jobs that many Americans do not want. “Specialization deepens. Workers’ productivity soars, forcing employers to compete for their time by offering higher pay” (Akers and Boudreaux 25). As researcher Ethan Lewis said, “Economics professor, Patricia Cortes, studied the way immigrants impact prices in 25 large United States metropolitan areas. She discovered that a 10-percent increase in immigration lowered the price...
One of the most pressing problems currently facing post-industrial societies is the slowing rate of reproduction in the native populations. One of the most notable examples is the country of Japan with a population decrease of 0.7% since the last census. This might not sound like a large amount but population growth and decline is an exponential function with this rate rapidly accelerating. This is a problem the US would be facing as well with the decline in birth rates after the Baby Boom in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the biggest factors that is preventing this from occurring is the immigration of people from all over the world to the United States.
Economically, immigrants greatly boost an economy by providing new job outlets, more money to companies, and reducing the unemployment rate. A large influx of immigrants will help many companies because of supply and demand, more people equals more needs to be provided. With the average immigrant worker working at lower wages, immigrants reduce the amount of money a company loses when paying their employees. A writer at The Fiscal Times connects this idea by claiming, “Without the immigrant labor, prices consumers pay for hotels and restaurants would be substantially higher (Furchgott-Roth).” Other than keeping vacations and dinners cheaper, immigration has yielded great results in the field of education. With a majority of immigrants relocating with their family or having a family in the new country, it is highly likely for them to send their offspring to school so that they can have a good education. This bodes well for the high school and/or college they attend because the children increase the graduation rate, which is one of many factors people use to determine how good a school is. Once acquiring a higher education, many of them will decide to open up their own business or wander into the job market. The former option has yielded excellent results for the United States, with immigrants owning almost one in five of the small businesses in America (Bass). The latter keeps a
Many proponents of illegal immigration believe illegals are beneficial to the American economy. [Statistic] Because of this statistic, Liberals argue that It should be the least courtesy That Americans grant legal status to workers who benefit the agricultural industry. The waste of workers deported back to Mexico would be catastrophic to America's farms. The undocumented workers are essential to supporting major industries like agriculture and construction, among the most important industries of the American economy. Undocumented workers are essential to supporting the American economy. The liberal argument is that the jobs that most illegal immigrants take are jobs that Americans do not want. Undocumented people work hard and are among
It is a known fact that the majority of immigrants are more desperate for work and are willing to take jobs that others may not such as garbage disposal or working at a factory. Many people are willing to pay these undocumented workers in cash because they have no previous public records or a credit card or a bank account. They then circulate the currency and may bring back that money to their home country, therefore boosting both country’s economies. And finally, undocumented workers may help build a better country and economy altogether. If they can get a job and work for an amount of money that is able to support a family, then they may bring over their own families from their home countries. If they are around their mid twenties they may be willing to start a family with someone they meet or bring an already established family over to the country that they have that sustaining job in. This may also help a country from a population standpoint. If the undocumented workers have children, then that just helps increase the number of children in that country which may also help a population pyramid and cause there to be a wider base of more children. Then, as those children grow up, they may become documented in the country later in life and will then may be classified as an
Additionally, there is essentially no proof to bolster this case about worker taking employments. The A.C.L.U. Studies figured out that immigrants really makes a greater number of jobs than they fill (Cole 690). Also, not mentioned that immigrants are actually often more productive and they run their own businesses where they hire citizens and immigrants. Yet the fact about illegal immigrant is true, but legal immigrants create more jobs from opening their own business, and they have a huge influence in our economy. Furthermore, According to an economist, immigration helps the U.S. economy by adding young workers to the workforce and immigrant workers increases the opportunities and incomes of Americans (Silva, Par. 2). Also, immigrants don’t just increase the supply of labor, they simultaneously increase demand for it using the wages they to rent apartments, eat, get a haircut, buy cell phones. That means that there are more jobs, building apartments, selling food, giving haircuts and dispatching the trucks that move those phones. Immigrants increase the size of the overall population, which means they increase the size of the economy by adding more jobs (Davidson, Par.
Many people that do not believe that immigration helps the economy feel that way because they feel like immigrants workers take the native born workers jobs. Since immigrants are willing to work for lower wages than native born workers they feel that they will take more of their jobs or make their wages lower (Ezell, 2013). This is not true...
Many people know that immigration is a big issue that can affect anyone in the world. It can affect people mentally and physically. There are many ways to prevent this issue. Maybe we can write letters to the president about how we feel about this issue. Immigration is one of the major issues in the U.S or maybe the world.Imagine if you had to leave your country, but couldn’t because you didn’t have a passport or a green card. Why is immigration a thing. People should be able to come in and out of the country without questions being asked. And the whole WALL idea will just make things 10x worse. Immigration is something EVERYONE should protest against. Like EVERYONE IN THE WORLD should protest against. The whole green card and passport idea isn’t really a good one. Everyone might think that it is ok to use a passport, but some people can’t afford them and if they need to leave the country, they would have to sneak over the border which will cause jail time. Immigration shouldn’t be a global issue.
Immigration is positive for our country’s economics although illegal immigration is negatively impacting our country.