Migration: Positive & Negative Impacts on Countries Involved - Essay Sample

Introduction

For many years, human beings have been migrating from one part of the world to the other because of various reasons, such as searching for a better life. In the modern world, human beings migrate to unite with family members, to escape prosecution, to search for better employment opportunities, and to do terrorist activities (Laque 25). An individual's reason to migrate from one country to another can have a positive or a negative impact on the countries involved. For instance, immigration had a negative impact in the United States on September 11th, 2001 (popularly known as 9/11) after various terrorist attacks, which killed many people. The terrorist attacks on United States soil led to reviewing the immigration laws in the country and many parts of the world. In this paper, the impact of legal immigration after the 9/11 attack will be discussed.

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Legal Immigration and Most Immigrants in the United States

Legal immigration is when a non-citizen alien is in a particular country legally under permanent resident status. In the United States, people with temporary visas can have their status changed to permanent residency after staying in the country for some time (Rivera). There are various ways in which one can obtain permanent residency status, such as by means of family-based visas, employment visas, marriage-based, through asylum, and through humanitarian programs. However, an individual has to meet other several requirements, such as ethical conduct, to obtain legal immigration status (Rivera).

In the U.S., there are immigrants from all over the world. However, there are countries with more immigrants than others every year. For example, more than half of all immigrants in 2017 were from 10 countries where Mexico led with more than a quarter of all the immigrants (Migration Policy Institute [MPI]). From the 1980s to date, the most significant percentage of immigrants ranked by country of origin were from Mexico, as explained by the MPI on their website. Although the immigrant growth rate has reduced in the past few years, the number of immigrants is projected to double in the next 45 years (Radford & Noe-Bustamante).

Development of Immigration Policy Post 9/11

Before the 9/11 attack, most countries did not emphasize on the possibility of a terrorist attack on their immigration policy. However, after the attack, the approach to the development of an immigration policy changed to restrict terrorist activities in a country. In the United States, a month after 9/11, Congress passed The Patriot Act (Laque 32). The Act authorized federal officers to arrest and imprison illegal immigrants. In May 2002, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act was passed by the congress (Laque 32). The act was meant to increase the security at borders as well as restricting terrorists from obtaining entry visas to the U.S. Another measure was the creation of the department of homeland security in January 2003. The department absorbed several agencies such as Coast Guard, Secret Service, Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Customs Service (Laque 32). Another measure was that the Department of Justice acquired jurisdiction over the immigration court system. All of those measures had a long term goal of making the United States a safe place free from terrorist activities.

Impact of the Immigration Policy on the United States

Legal immigration affects educational attainment in the U.S. Among the legal immigrants who came to the country since 2014; approximately half had a bachelor or advanced degree. Of the native-born Americans, only a third have such attainment for the same period (He & Herrick). That means that if the immigration policy does not change in the future, the immigrants will continue increasing the overall educational attainment. Immigration policies also affect the population's age distribution. Most of the newly arrived immigrants are generally of working age, and it is projected that under the current policy, by 2048, the old-age dependency ratio will be 38% as opposed to today's 25% (He & Herrick). The immigrants also ease the federal tax burden of the average native-born American by paying their taxes.

Impact of Immigration Policy on Jobs in the U.S.

The current immigration policy has brought positive economic growth and innovation because most of the immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree. While the immigrants represent about 15% of the workforce, they account for a quarter of all entrepreneurs and a quarter of investors in the country (Hoban). Also, one-third of new firms have at least one immigrant entrepreneur in its leadership team. While some people argue that immigrants have lowered average wages, research shows that immigrants have a minimal effect on native-born American wages (Hoban).

Impact of Immigration Policy on Health

Access to proper healthcare and health care insurance increases the heath general population in the U.S. However, not everybody in the population is eligible for health care insurance. In the U.S., there is health insurance established by the government known as Medicaid, which is offered to low-income individuals. For permanent resident immigrants to access the insurance benefit, they must have lived in the country for five years (Johnson). That means that if an immigrant has health issues that require medical insurance before the five year period is over, he/she will not access Medicaid which negatively affects the general population's health. Besides, unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for Medicare further affecting the general health (Johnson).

Conclusion

9/11 was an attack that negatively affected the United States in many ways. People died, the economy suffered, and many jobs were lost, it would not make any sense for a country to suffer such a significant loss and fail to take safety precautions. Considering that immigrants executed the attacks, the U.S. government has implemented several policies that help monitor the type of people entering the country. These policies have had an impact on the general population such as affecting educational attainment, population's age distribution, reduces the old-age dependency ration, and also affects the general population's health. It is, therefore, evident that the current immigration policies have their advantages and disadvantages.

Works Cited

He, Zheli, and Austin Herrick. The Effects of Changes to Immigration Policy on the United States' Population. Penn Wharton Budget Model, Penn Wharton Budget Model, 27 June 2019, www.budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2019/6/26/the-effects-of-changes-to-immigration-policy-on-the-united-states-population.

Hoban, Brennan. Do Immigrants 'Steal' Jobs from American Workers? Brookings, Brookings, 19 July 2018, www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2017/08/24/do-immigrants-steal-jobs-from-american-workers/.

Johnson, Ann Morse/Bakara. Immigrant Eligibility for Health Care Programs in the United States, www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/immigrant-eligibility-for-health-care-programs-in-the-united-states.aspx.

Laque, Erick C. Immigration Law and Policy: Before and after September 11, 2001. Social Sciences Journal | Volume 10 | Issue 1, 2010, www.repository.wcsu.edu/ssj/vol10/iss1/.

"Migration Policy Institute." Largest U.S. Immigrant Groups over Time, 1960-Present. 16 Jan. 2019, www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/largest-immigrant-groups-over-time.

Radford, Jynnah, and Luis Noe-Bustamante. Immigrants in America: Key Charts and Facts. Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 24 Sept. 2019, www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2019/06/03/facts-on-u-s-immigrants/.

Rivera, Jose. What Is Legal Immigration? Legal Match Law Library, 5 July, 2018, www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/what-is-legal-immigration.html.