Essay Example on Immigrants Seek Better Opportunities Abroad

Introduction

Immigration is the movement of people from one nation to another. People move from their nations to other nations due to different reasons. Some of the reasons that make people move out of their nations include political instability, unemployment issues, terrorism, or even due to other social problems. Those immigrants who move out of their nation's economic and financial constraints do so because they think that the other country is more economically viable than their homeland country. The United States, as one of the most stable nations, economically and financially, and therefore, many people in other nations see the country as the land of dreams. Many people from other nations have moved and settled America either illegally or legally. Therefore, immigration in the United States has turned out to be a serious issue that has forced the country's top political leaders to take serious steps to curb it. This research paper will discuss undocumented Mexican immigration to the United States, and the impact their immigration status has on their children.

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The nature of the problem, prevalence, and impact on Mexican Children

Many Mexicans have immigrated to the United States illegally using the Mexican border. These Mexican immigrants illegally enter into the United States using coyotes and others crawling through tunnels. Coyotes, who are like intermediaries, for immigration of the Mexicans illegally transport the immigrants across the border in exchange for a fee (Nwosu et al., 2014). As a result of more immigrants illegally able to enter the country, the American administration has always come up with strict policies and laws to curb undocumented immigration and even reduce the number of people coming into the country. The American administration has specifically enforced strict rules and policies at the Mexican border, intending to arrest illegal immigrants as soon as they cross the boundaries. Since as early as 1790, the U.S. administration has always implemented laws and policies that would solve the illegal immigration issue. Some of the public policies and laws include the Naturalization Act (1790), Dream Act (2010), and Deferred Action for Children Act (2012) (Nwosu et al., 2014). Not all the policies and laws in the country meant to reduce immigration as others are meant to ensure that whoever is in the country is their legally and for a specific period of time. Therefore, immigration in the United States has been a significant issue, and that is why the country has been implementing and enforcing very many laws and policies to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants in the country.

According to a study done by Nwosu et al. (2014), around 25% of children in the United States live with an at least one immigrant parent, and between 2009 to 2013, an estimated number of more than 4.1 million children belonging to undocumented parents were already the citizens of the United States by birth. This represented around 79% of children of undocumented parents who had become U.S. citizens because of the fact that they had been born in the country. As of 2017, the number of immigrants in the United States was 44.5 million (Brown, S. K. (2017). The Mexicans make more than a quarter of this number, making Mexicans be the largest foreign-born group in the United States. However, the population of Mexican immigrants in the United States has been shrinking since 2010. From 2016 to 2017, there was a significant reduction of Mexicans from 11.6 million to 11.3 million, which represented a reduction of 300,000 (Brown, 2017).be attributed to strict immigration law and policy enforcement and improved Mexican economy, which has made Mexican immigrants return to their homeland. The number of Mexicans in the country is estimated to decrease in the next five years if we are to go by the 2010-2017 trend.

The enforcement of many immigration laws and policies have brought a lot of problems to the illegal Mexican immigrants. The immigration laws in the United States are enforced in two ways; through detention or through the deportation of undocumented immigrants (Brown, 2017). As a result, there always a separation of families. Whenever illegal immigrants successfully cross the American-Mexican border, they may live in the country for many years before being caught. As a result, they settle and even have children. However, a time comes when these undocumented immigrants are caught, and they are either deported or detained for coming to the country illegally. In such a case, the children are the ones who suffer most as they are American citizens by birth, but their parents are not. As the children cannot be detained and deported with their parents, their lives become shattered as they have lost their caregivers, and also, the foster care that the children are put in is always a nightmare for them (Goo, 2015).

The detention and deportation that illegal immigrants face today in the U.S. are as a result of immigration policies that were passed in 1980 and 1990s. Immigration policies such as Control Act and the Immigration Reform have struck fear on the undocumented Mexican immigrants such that they choose to stay in American instead of risking to be detained when trying to return home (Goo, 2015). Separation of families has serious implications on immigrants' children, and that is why the parents would choose to stay in the hideouts for even 20 years. Researches done on the impact of undocumented immigrants in the United States show that illegal immigration has both short and long-term impacts on the families and their children. First, due to contextual risks related to illegal immigration, the immigrants are exposed to labor exploitation through low wages and hence increased poverty levels among such families (Goo, 2015). and This as a negative impact on immigrants and their children. Therefore, illegal immigration of some Mexicans negatively affects them and their children, especially in a case they caught, detained, and later deported, leaving their children behind.

Barriers to service/treatment

Studies have shown that children of undocumented immigrants have lower levels of education compared to those of documented immigrants. They also face significant barriers to attaining higher education in colleges. Additionally, children of undocumented parents are less likely to be enrolled in pre-K educational public programming or other service programs like Children Health Insurance Program, public housing, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, earned income tax credit, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, social security and other warfare services (Lu et al., 2020). Although the children are legally entitled to all services, undocumented immigrant parents try to avoid coming into contact as much as possible, and this is what denies their children important services. As a result of this, it also unlikely for children of undocumented parents to have frequent medical checks despite being legal citizens. According to Page et al. (2020), all undocumented immigrants had to be encouraged to seek medical assistance whenever they have symptoms of COVID-19 as the aliens are always in the hideout, and that means they will not avail themselves for treatment. With an epidemic like COVID-19, the American government had to call on all the aliens to reduce the impact of the diseases on aliens.

Cultural aspects of Mexican immigrants and how to intervene them

As mentioned earlier, the Mexican population makes the biggest number of immigrants in the U.S. Social identity can be used to explain how the Mexican immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, organize themselves when they arrive in the United States. Mexican immigrants come to the U.S. mainly to improve their standard of living. However, when they arrive in the country, they face language and cultural differences, which makes them unable to achieve this goal (Brabeck et al., 2016). They are not able to socialize with Americans and to the language barrier and cultural differences, and therefore, they end up not getting better employment, associating with Americans and other groups, getting enough education, being accepted, and not taking part in the community programs especially for undocumented Mexicans. As a result, Mexican immigrants prefer to settle in towns with many other Mexicans so that they can survive. Social workers in the U.S. can play an integral part in intervening the Mexican immigrants' issues (Brabeck et al., 2016). They can provide them with interpreters, show them the importance of embracing cultural diversity and campaign for them to be given more employment opportunities just like the other immigrants.

Assessment Tools

Immigrants in the U.S., especially Mexican immigrants and other Latino immigrants, lack important services due to their culture and language barrier. The need assessment method that can be used to help Mexican immigrants include gauging the knowledge of teachers on the Mexican immigrants in the community, understanding the educational needs and experiences of the immigrants and using the Mexican strengths like culture and language to provide their children with support both at home and at school (Brabeck et al., 2016). The needs assessment will establish the steps that the government needs to take into incorporate Mexicans into its society and to enable Mexican immigrants to obtain education just like the American children.

Recommendations

The children of undocumented Mexican immigrants face many problems whenever their parents are detained and deported. Also, the lack of vital services like health care and education as their parents avoid contact with the government. The current U.S. immigration laws and policies have created an environment of fear and exclusion that has negatively affected not only the immigrants but also their children who may be legal American citizens. The threat of detentions and deportation of undocumented Mexican immigrants have both mental and physical impact on the children, and it leaves them even more marginalized. The legalization of undocumented immigrants to go through a process to be citizens can be a solution to the problems and challenges that face Mexican immigrants and their children. Studies show that 70% of Americans support the legalization process despite Trump's administration using immigration as a dividing tool (Goo, 2015). Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), which was created in 2014, could have helped the undocumented Mexican population as it required undocumented parents to be temporarily protected and to obtain work permits so that they can secure jobs. However, this program was opposed by the federal government in Texas, and later the U.S. Supreme could not allow the program to proceed. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) signed by Obama also helped children and young adults obtain important services and education, and it was also renewable every one year to enable children of undocumented children to live in the U.S. legally (Brabeck et al., 2016). However, permanent legalization will help the children of undocumented Mexican parents as they will not live in fear and insecurity of their parents being illegally in the country.

Undocumented immigrants Services in the U.S.

Currently, undocumented Mexican immigrants can seek help from the National immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Law Center, Families for freedom, and Immigration Advocates Network (Brabeck et al., 2016). People usually donate towards these organizations so that they can fight the injustices and wrath of unfavorable immigration laws and policies for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Conclusion

The issue of undocumented immigrants has been a big issue for the United...