Immigration in America
The United States of America is clearly built on immigration. Most of these immigrants come to America tired and poor, but their aggressiveness has challenged their innovation and thus improved the economy of the nation. They bring with them talent, global connections, and youthfulness which in return bring about diversity leading to economic growth. The largest ethnic groups, including the German-America, have assimilated thoroughly above the levels of the American natives. Therefore, America should have an improved immigration system as the system is widely known for its lack of competitiveness. The following is a discussion of why America should embrace immigration and protect immigrants.
The economic imperative for immigration reform
Embracing immigration means legalizing and naturalizing the undocumented immigrants, especially those who have proved their sincere intentions of working in America. By doing so, these immigrants will have access to better jobs as well as create a good environment for innovation and investments. Not only will this action affect the lives of the immigrants, but also will raise the income of all the Americans. This will lead to a cumulative increase in the Gross Domestic Product of the U.S close to 1.1 trillion dollars in the next ten years. Legalizing undocumented immigrants will foster an environment for business creation and this will lead to increased job opportunities across America. In return tax revenues will increase. Documenting immigrants would also lead to decreased deficit in the federal budget as proposed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants would help them to contribute positively to the social security of millions of American retirees.
The record on immigrants and the economy
Immigrants have a proven record of their contribution to the economy of America. Both legal and undocumented immigrants have a record of paying large state and local taxes, for example in 2010 unauthorized immigrants paid 10.6 billion dollars in state and local taxes (Center for American Progress, 2014). Given that immigrants are barred from most social services, it means that they support benefits they cannot even receive. Research by Rourke shows that immigrants act as a complement to the Native American workers rather than competitors (Rourke, 2011). Native American workers actually benefit from immigration as immigrants help to complement their skills hence making them more productive. Most Americans believe that if undocumented immigrants are granted citizenship the rate of unemployment with the increase among them. Research has shown if immigrants are legalized, unemployment will increase by 0.1% among the American Natives for a period of ten years. However, this is a short-term effect of growth in the labor force as well as a sign of immigrants repositioning themselves to be productive for the following decades to come. In addition, retirements may cause crucial job openings which are likely to be filled by immigrants, thus promoting growth in the labor market.
The price of inaction and the cost of mass deportation
The cost of inaction on the immigrants is usually high and is carried out using the tax-payer money. For example, a sum of 17.7 billion dollars was used for House’s inaction. This means that, if immigrants are legalized, such costs will be reduced and money will be directed to other productive projects. In addition, maintain the status quo is not revenue neutral give that one-third of authorized immigrants are working in the formal economy and contributing about 12 billion dollars in payroll taxes each year. This is compared to the loss incurred by the U.S which is around 20 billion dollars in payroll tax revenue each year. It is evident that The United States spends more on immigration and border enforcement annually than the annual gross domestic product of 80 countries (Center for American Progress, 2014, p. 10). This sum adds up to 18 billion dollars each year. Research has also shown that if all the immigrants were to leave the country willingly, the GDP would fall to a hit of 2.6 trillion dollars over ten years (Center for American Progress, 2014).
The advisable thing to do on immigration in relation to the economy is focusing on welcoming new immigrants every year. Both protection of the national borders and promoting economic prosperity would incur a higher cost in relation to fixing the immigration system crisis. It is clear that increasing the legal immigrant population would improve by 60% the economy of America. Embracing diversity would be the key to a new America through new innovation and increased labor market.
In as much as this article this article is valid, not all immigrants are productive. A series of interviews should be followed to ensure that only viable immigrants are granted citizenship.
Deportation: the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or a country.
Economic imperative: some economic aspects that must be implemented for the economy to prosper.
I tend to agree with this article because welcoming new arrivals will bring more advantages than there are disadvantages. Embracing diversity is the key to economic empowerment of a country because it enhances innovation and investment. However, this activity of legalizing must be carried out with a lot of caution to mitigate dangerous actions as the end result.
References
Rourke, Brad. (2011). A New Issue Guide: Immigration in America. How Do We Fix a System in Crisis? Retrieved from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2014/10/23/59040/the-facts-on-immigration-today-3/
Center for American Progress. (2014). The Facts on Immigration Today. https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ImmigrationFacts-brief-10.23.pdf
