Immigration: Benefits and Challenges for the US - Essay Sample

Introduction

The United States of America has benefited a lot from opening its doors to immigrants. The immigrants, who have been coming to the United States of America over time, include the students, employees, and many others who often come and stay for a short period before going back to their countries. However, since there are no strong laws to guard and protect the interests of the immigrants, America may not benefit from the immigrants. Numerous proposals have been made over the years to shift the immigration system from employment and family reunification based migration to allowing immigrants with certain levels of education as well as employment qualifications.

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Immigration policy has changed a great deal during the reign of President Trump. The administration of Trump has made some proposals over time that will allow immigrants who meet qualifications only to be given green cards (Carter et al. .11). The requirements are the ability to speak English, Level of Education as well as age. Previously the administration had also made some proposals that were to prevent immigrants from entering the United States of America through means like Medicaid or other means of public assistance. President Trump issued travel bans that prevented the issuance of visas of seven Muslim countries, and the number has increased to 13. He also imposed a sanction of arresting anyone who was to be caught crossing the border illegally. He also attempted to end the deferred action of childhood arrival in the US. It is maiden speech in the State of the Union. Trump outlined the four pillars of his admiration in matters of immigration. The first pillar was on the path to citizenship for Dreamers, increased funds on border security, eradicating the diversity visa lottery, and finally imposing restrictions on family-based immigration.

The US has the largest number of immigrants in the world. Pew research has shown that the number of immigrants in America is a fifth of the total settlers in the world. Almost every country in the world is represented in the US. The number of immigrants in the US in 2017 was 44.4 million; this was four times the number of immigrants that were in the US in the year 1965. Today immigrant makes 13.6% of the total population of America. However, most citizens, about 77% residing in the US, are there legally, while a quarter of the immigrants are unauthorized. In the year 2017 alone, around 44% were accepted citizens, while 28%were enduring residents, and 5% were transitory inhabitants. In 2017 the number of settlers declined by 14%, which is 1.7 million. Unauthorized immigrants were 10.5million, which accounted for 3.2% of the total population of the nation. The Department of Homeland Security has also released new data, according to the data, immigration has declined by 87 000, which accounts for like 7% between the year 2016 and the year 2018.

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas becomes the first Governor to reject resettlements, according to the new rules put in place by President Trump (Portes et al. 102). He announced that the state of Texas would not accept new refugees. According to the executive order signed in December by Trump, the states and municipalities were to be given written consent before allowing refugees to be resettled in their states. In the letter that Abbott wrote to the secretary of the state, Mr. Pompeo, he said that the state of Texas had carried more than its share in helping the refugees to resettle. Abbott noted that since the financial year 2010, Texas had received more immigrants more than any state in the United States of America. He also pointed out that in a decade, 10% of the total refugees coming to the United States of America are resettled in Texas. Abbott said that the Congress had left Texas to handle issues of disproportion migration. According to Abbott, 100,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the southern border of the state. In the fiscal year 2018, the Governor pointed out that apprehensions involved individuals from Tonga, Russia, Kenya, Iran as well as China.

The immigration policies set by the administration of Trump have economic consequences. The policies will make it difficult for universities in the United States of America, companies, and even laboratories to employ foreigners or also hire them (Mayda et al. 20). In as much as the administration is focused on having qualified immigrants, it generally means that the number of visas both temporary and permanent, will reduce. Evidence from research done by experts in the US has shown that foreigners who are scientists and engineers contribute a great deal to the innovation of the US. The research further showed that foreigners, who are educated, are likely to innovate; therefore, local productivity depends on their presence a great deal. Foreigners generally contribute to the productivity growth of the US. The research has further shown that the number of skilled immigrants is going to reduce, and this will affect the productivity of the country.

In as much as the new policies don't want undocumented workers, they provide essential services to sectors that employ large numbers of workers to do different types of jobs, for instance, accountants, managers, and many more others (Orrenius et al. .45). Domestic production of several things, especially agricultural products, will either reduce or even disappear. As a result, the imports will go up, and their prices will go up as well. On the other hand, the services that are offered in the hospitality and management sector at a meager price will also be expensive. Most of the states in the US attribute their growth to the jobs that are done by the less skilled immigrant workers. Therefore, if the unskilled immigrants will be deported, then the economic growth of the states will go down drastically. Another fact is that very few Americans will take manual and low skilled jobs, which therefore means that, the immigrants are the only option who can take the jobs and do them at an affordable price.

Although President Trump feels like the foreigner has taken the glory of Americans, the fact is that they have also taken part in making the glory. The policies may look good in the eyes of a few Americans. Still, the outcomes of reducing the number of immigrants or having them deported will have devastating consequences on the economy of the US. Most of the manual and unskilled jobs that are done by the immigrants contribute greatly to the economy of the states and the country at large. Since the Native Americans cannot do these manual jobs, then it means there will be a shortage of labor, and the economy will be affected. Going forward, to maintain the economy of America in its stable condition, the immigration policies imposed by Trump should be abolished.

References

Carter, Niambi M., and Tyson D. King-Meadows. "Perceptual Knots and Black Identity Politics: Linked Fate, American Heritage, and Support for Trump Era Immigration Policy." Societies 9.1 (2019): 11.

Mayda, Anna Maria, and Giovanni Peri. "The economic impact of US immigration policies in the Age of Trump." Economics and Policy in the Age of Trump 69 (2017).

Orrenius, Pia M., Madeline Zavodny, and Stephanie Gullo. "How Does Immigration Fit into the Future of the US Labor Market?." (2019).

Portes, Alejandro, and Luis E. Guarnizo. "Tropical capitalists: US-bound immigration and small-enterprise development in the Dominican Republic." Migration, remittances, and small business development. Routledge, 2019. 101-131.