Essay Example on Immigration to US: Florida & New York

Both Florida and New York are states in the United States. Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not own citizenship in with a reason of living there as either permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Individuals move from their former countries as a result of inadequate local resources to improve their living standards, climate change to meet their other family members. An individual can as well move to another country in search of employment opportunities and become an immigrant in that new country of residence. In the United States, there are four types of immigrants. United States citizens are those who have become naturalized after three to five years of living in the U.S. Permanent residents is an immigration status to those who have got in the U.S. by use of the green card. Non-immigrants are in the country legally temporarily, such as students and tourists. Undocumented immigrants are in the country illegally, thus cannot enjoy public facilities such as health care. There exist laws, policies, and court decisions regarding immigration procedures that have been put in practice in the United States (Well, 2004). The difference in policy enactment in different states is influenced by the state's human population and sociological theories.

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Both Florida and New York are states in the United States. The two states usually receive immigrants from other countries, mostly due to employment opportunities. Immigration policies have, therefore, been formulated to abide by immigrants. Another reason behind the development of the laws is to protect the benefits the states receive from immigrants, such as skilled labor, and prevent them from going back to their home countries. Some policies are similar between the two-state while there exist differences in the away other systems are administered and enacted. Both Florida and New York have an immigration policy that governs the employer. It is under The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Well, 2004). The law requires all those who are allowed to work in the states by the authority to be verified. Biometric systems that are highly reliable are recommended. Qualification documents are also checked. High penalties are administered to those who fail to agree and follow the policy. The purpose of this immigration policy governing the two states and the United States at large is to prevent illegal migration. It also ensures that only qualified immigrants have been granted the job to avoid discouraging high skilled individuals from providing labor. Social conflict theory is also manifested as it improves the economic wellbeing of the native workers (Lee, 2009).

Another immigration policy that is practiced by both Florida and New York earned legalization (Wolgin, 2014). The law is under The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (Well, 2004). This policy ought to target immigrants living in the United States illegally. All individuals residing in the states must acquire an immigration status for identification, including the possession of a visa. Even young people who have not yet earned status and are willing to live in the states should either join a college or perform a military force to show that they have desirable behaviors and are thus eligible to reside in the states permanently. In both Florida and New York, there is The Legal Immigration Family Equity Act, which allows green card holders already living in the countries to change their Immigration status to permanent without first leaving the states.

Even though the United States formulates immigration laws to be followed by all the states, there exist some differences in the way Florida and New York implement the rules and policies. This results from the fact that it is the government of each state that has the final say regarding the federal government of the whole Unites States (Wells, 2004). The state government is the determinant of how laws should be followed and put into practice. In New York, for example, the state defers to the federal regulations. The state's government limits individuals under the status of undocumented immigrants from accessing public benefits such as school and healthcare and housing. However, in cases of emergency, the undocumented immigrants are allowed to enjoy the benefits. Such services include health care, for they are required to protect life and safety. New York does not put into place rules that govern education for immigrants. Thus, immigrants are liable for their education expenses. The state also fails to offer public housing to immigrant individuals even if they are working for the country. The immigrants are supposed to look and cater to the housing cost. To add on, the voter identification requirement of immigrants is not needed in New York (Well, 2004). In contrary to New York concerning accessibility to public services such as education, Florida form decreed a law in 2014 that permitted individuals settled in the country illegally to pay tuition fees the same as legal residents. However, illegal immigrants should first graduate from Florida high school. On matters concerning health care provision to immigrants, Florida State's government permitted expectant immigrant females and young children to register in Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program. There exist in Florida federally qualified health centers for illegal immigrants.

Florida implemented a law in 2011 that requires agencies belonging to the state, contractors, and subcontractors to use E-Verify when they hire workers (Wolgin, 2014). E-Verify is an internet-based system that helps in comparing the employee's information from Form 1-9 with the data from the United States Department of Homeland and Security Administration to make sure that the individual is qualified and worthy to handle the task. The system also ensures that illegal immigrants are not offered the job. The priority is given to the legal resident; thus, competition for employment and from other countries in the workforce is significantly reduced. New York, however, differs from the federal government policy, which claims that all businesses situated in any state of the United States should not hire anybody who has no legal permission to work in the United States. Therefore, contrary to this policy, New York does not use the internet-based system to verify employees. The state only complies with the rules and regulations which are under Form 1-9. Due to this, any individual can work in New York without first going through the verification process. The E-Verify system has, however, been criticized that it violates an individual's right to privacy. Checking an individual's information daily would hurt an ordinary person. Nevertheless, information verification before job offerings will lock out a considerable number of immigrants from job opportunities.

The federal government of the United States allows a non-resident to be issued with a driving license and a state I.D. (Wolgin, 2014). New York, therefore, demands an individual to possess a Social Security card, their date of birth, name, and identification official immigration documents. In Florida, a driving license is usually not given to non-legal residents. This is because a heated debate has existed concerning the issuance of the permits. Some like The Boston Globe editorial board argues that acquisition of the driving license improves public safety by ensuring that the drivers have the knowledge concerning the road rules. On the contrary, the Center for migration in Florida argues that it poses a threat to the safety of the national public security at large. Besides, a driving license opts to serve as a primary form of identification, which qualifies one to perform business deals such as opening bank accounts by illegal immigrants.

The immigration policies formulated and implemented by both Florida and New York, whether similar or different, have got a wide variety of consequences. The policy governing employment verification locks quite several qualified immigrants from accessing job opportunities. This, in turn, results in a high rate of unemployment for immigrants, which lower their living standards. It also leads to wastage of highly qualified and skilled labor personnel. The New York law, which differs from the federal government policy of verifying employee details, seeks to recruit a large mass of workers. This leads to a mass inflow of immigrants to the state, which leads to a high population increase (Sullivan, 2019).Nevertheless, New York state rule over public benefit is not favorable to immigrants; thus, individuals who require public services tend to divert their destination to Florida, which is a bit more accommodative in terms of public service issuance. Therefore, education for immigrants in Florida is more excellent. The issuance of driving licenses in New York tends to increase crime rates (Sullivan, 2019). The policy of legalization, which is practiced by both states, ensures that a state acquires an approximate statistical figure regarding the human population.

Conclusion

In conclusion, immigration is whereby individuals move from their native country to another country. Immigration can be a result of the search for employment opportunities, climate change, family unification, and living standards improvement. In the United States, there exist four immigration statuses. The United States Citizens, Permanent residents, Undocumented immigrants, and non-immigrants. The United States has federal laws and policies for immigrants, which should apply to all the states. However, some countries such as opt to differ from the federal statutes and formulate their strategies to suit their state interests. Florida and New York, being among the states in the United States, possess some similar immigration policies which they decree in common. Legalization and offering employment opportunities to immigrants stand among the immigration policies both at the federal and state level. However, the two countries differ in the way they offer public services to immigrants, employee verification, and issuance of the driving license. Formulation and implementation of these immigration policies are solely influenced by the sociological theories, history, and the human population. An example of a sociological theory is the social conflict theory.

References

Lee, C. (2009). Sociological Theories of Immigration: Pathways to Integration for United States Immigrants. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350902910906

Wells, M. J. (2004). The grassroots reconfiguration of U.S. immigration policy. International Migration Review, 38(4), 1308-1347.

Wolgin, P, E. (2014). Major United States Immigration Laws. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues.immigration/news/2014.

Sullivan, R, D. (2019). How Immigration Affects the United States. Retrieved from https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2019/10/18.